


Pirates VS Conductors

by lisachan, Tabata



Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, F/M, Femslash, Lemon, M/M, Original Character(s), Slash, Threesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-26
Updated: 2012-12-09
Packaged: 2017-11-12 22:37:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 44,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/496407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lisachan/pseuds/lisachan, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabata/pseuds/Tabata
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Since Queen Sue ascended to the throne of the Iron Lands, the war against the pirates of the Floating Lands got worse and worse with every year. The pirates claim the Midlands as their own, but the Steam Army of the Queen conquered them, and they're not going to let the pirates take them back again.<br/>History seems about to change when Burt Hummel, a scientist living in the Midlands, works out a device that transmutes common dirt into iron. That way, it shouldn't be necessary to fight for the Midlands anymore, and the war could finally stop. Queen Sue asks him to bring the device to the Iron Palace, so that she can see it at work and, once it's proven working, stop the fighting. Burt, though, would be an easy target for anybody who wanted to steal the device, considering that he's very well known for having worked for the Queen for years.<br/>For that reason, he sends his only child Kurt to the Iron Palace with the device, hoping that it could be safer with somebody who's not as well known as he is. Kurt accepts the mission and departs on his fiancée Blaine's train. He's one of the heads of the Steam Army, and his battletrain survived countless fights.<br/>That's why Kurt feels safe.<br/>Unfortunately, he's wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Threesomes are always good things, everybody knows that. But we wanted to kick it up a notch, so we started talking about pirates. And battletrains. On tracks up in the air. With alchemy. You can't get any cooler than that. Except for dinosaurs. We'll be working on that next time.  
> With that said, we really, really had fun writing this, creating this world from scratches and having it masterfully drawn by kironomi who not only got exactly what we had in mind but delivered it in the best way possible. You will find her beautiful drawings inside the story, enhancing some part of it.  
> As usual, we tried to write as well as we could, but nothing changed from our last fic and we're still Italian. So, even though we hope we're getting better and better with every fic we write in English, grammar mistakes and horrors are bound to be there. Have patience. ~ reviews will be cherished, criticisms are welcomed, but please be gentle.

  


The war predated everything Kurt knew, as well as the whole actual living population of the continent. There wasn’t a single alive person that was born before the conflict had started. After a hundred years of war, whoever was born before it was already dead, and in the meanwhile a lot of people were born while it was happening, and died before they could see its ending.

Kurt, for example, had lived his whole life, up to his seventeenth year of age, firmly believing the war would never stop. It would have gone on and on until the end of the world – or, alternatively, until the end of available soldiers.

If you asked history professors and learned people about the beginning of the war and its reasons, they always knew how to answer in details. They seemed to take delight in keeping you there as they went on and on for hours about this or that king of the Iron Lands and this or that pirate captain from the Floating Lands, the conflicts they had, the battles they fought, the tactics they went by.

If you asked normal people, though, those who lived in the country or in the iron cities, those who worked in the caves in the Midlands, they only knew the basics. Some of them didn’t even knew that. They knew a war had started way before they were born, they knew that war was all about conquering the Midlands and their mines and keeping them in control, they knew it had probably started when the Iron Lands first stepped into the Midlands claiming them as theirs despite them being considered neutral territories since the beginning of time, but that was all. They didn’t knew about people fighting on the front line, they didn’t knew about generals and commanders that were nothing but strangers’ names to them, they didn’t knew about all the money the war cost to the Iron Lands, or the multitude of lives it took.

They wanted the war over, but they didn’t care about what it really was, what it meant to the Iron Lands. Some of them even sided with the pirates, believing – Gods only knew why – that they were saviours, that they wanted to free them all from the Queen’s unfair treatment.

In Kurt’s opinion, they were fools. From where did they think the iron used to forge their tools, their utensils, even their money and the posts used to build their own homes came? Of course it came from the mines in the Midlands. The Iron Lands covered a huge territory through the whole continent, while the Floating Lands were nothing but a few little islands roaming around in the sky, always changing place with every month. They hosted not more than a hundred thousand people while the Iron Lands were home to billions. The pirates ruling the Floating Lands could have easily settled to buy a small portion of the iron the miner extracted from the caves in the Midlands, but no, they wanted the whole Midlands to be theirs, despite the little use they had for them, and still people really believed the war was some Iron Lands’ King’s fault.

Sure, Kurt hated war too. He hated waking up in the morning knowing people were going to die, he hated that there was a very little he or anybody else could do to save them or make the massacre stop, but he knew somebody had to fight that war, somebody had to kill and be killed to defend the Midlands and the Iron Lands’ wealth from the pirates’ invasion, and he wanted the war over, of course, but he wanted the Iron Lands to _win it_. Surely, he didn’t want some uncivilized pirates from the Floating Lands to sit on the iron throne and rule the whole land by his immoral and barbaric rules.

People didn’t know how pirates truly were. Kurt wasn’t exactly learned – he was the son of an alchemist, after all, he knew almost anything about basic alchemy processes, but he wasn’t really acquainted about history or sociology – but he had read some books about them, he knew how they lived by. They almost never left their battleships, they were known not to take any prisoners, and whenever they caught someone from the Iron Lands they always tortured them to death, even soldiers who clearly knew nothing about the Steam Army strategy, in an attempt to make them reveal Gods only knew which kind of secrets they thought they could use to their advantage on the battleground.

Pirates were cruel, ignorant brutes, and they only wanted the Midlands so that they could use the iron from the caves to enlarge their fleet and finally take a move against the Iron Lands, to conquer them, slaughter all the people who adverse them and enslave the others, and those who thought pirates were fighting this war to free the people of the Iron Lands from some kind of cruel and vicious queen, clearly knew nothing about anything at all.

“Kurt?” Burt said, waving a hand in front of his eyes to try and bring him back on earth from the stream of thoughts that had clearly brought him to some place else, “Are you listening to me?”

“Yes, dad,” he answered, turning to look at him with a little smile, “But you already told me everything a dozen times in the last three days. I think I know, now.”

“No, you don’t!” Burt insisted, placing both his big, calloused hands on his son’s shoulders, shaking him a little back and forth, “The mission you’re going to go on is a very difficult, very important, very dangerous one. We can’t risk for you to get caught, you will bring the philosopher’s stone to the Queen, and—”

“I know, dad, I know. If it can convince the Queen that the stone alone could provide the iron to sustain the whole land, the war will be over.”

His father had lazily searched for the philosopher’s stone for his whole life, just like every other man who considered himself an alchemist had done and still did since the beginning of the world. It wasn’t until he had found concrete evidence of his existence and utility that he told the Queen about it.

The stone had been working and improving non stop for the last eleven or twelve month, since Kurt’s dad and the Queen had last spoken about it, and Kurt had seen it at work a thousand times at least: it never transmuted into iron more than just a stone or something. And even then, the quantity of iron resulting somehow never managed to compare to the quantity of stone or dirt or even wood used at the beginning of the transmutation process.

Kurt had serious doubts that something like that could ever solve the Iron Lands’ problems to the point that the war would be useless, but his dad firmly believed that was what was going to happen, and after the countless years the old alchemist had spent working on that project he wouldn’t want to be the one to tell him “dad, no, this is clearly not going to work”.

“Exactly,” Burt said, nodding quickly. “You have to be brave and careful, son.”

“And you know I won’t,” Kurt chuckled, freeing himself from his father’s grasp, “That’s why you’re handing me over to Blaine, so he will be for both of us.”

Burt didn’t seem to find his son’s joke any funny, and frowned sternly as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Kurt, do I have to remind you about the crucial importance of this whole operation? How many lives we could save, how many battles we could spare the army with just one stone?”

“I swear, dad, if you remind me about it one more time, I’ll puke,” Kurt answered with a bright smile, “Dad, really, I know. And I understand. And I trust Blaine and his battletrain,” Kurt added, turning a bit to lovingly glance at his fiancée, waiting for him near the train, already ready to depart, “And so should you. He’s not a commander of the Steam Army for nothing.”

Burt sighed, passing a hand over his face. “Yes, and I do,” he admitted, gesturing towards Blaine to invite him to come closer. “Blaine, I entrust my son to you. Take good care of him and the valuable load he carries.”

“I will, mister Hummel,” Blaine said, smiling confidently at him. They shook hands, Kurt already by his fiancée’s side, an arm wrapped around his. Blaine turned towards him and smiled. “Now, shall we go?”

*

Blaine was a war hero whose name was known through the whole land. If there was one member of the Steam Army, only one, that commoners would have saved from the fury of the pirates’ fleets, that was him. He was a decorated soldier who had proven his value fighting bravery on the front line before he was awarded with the grade of commander, and he had the responsibility of the Warbler, the first, the biggest and the strongest among all the battletrains of the Steam Army.

At his command, the Warbler had won countless fights, shooting down dozens of pirate ships, and the soldiers he now commanded had captured hundreds of pirates that were now safely held prisoners into the Capital’s prisons, where they couldn’t hurt anybody anymore.

He was a well respected commander, a man about whom people could do nothing but talk with deference and admiration.

Yet, he clearly had no clue of what it meant to be a boyfriend. Three days had passed since they had left Lima, headed to the Capital, and Kurt had only seen him a couple of times tops. He had passed his days caged in a carriage equipped with all the comforts he might need, except of course for the strong arms of his boyfriend firmly wrapped around his body.

Blaine and Kurt didn’t exactly have a very close relationship, but that was only because they couldn’t see each other as often as they would have liked to. When they actually managed to finally spend some time together, they were always very close, and Kurt was hoping that this trip would have brought a lot more moments of intimacy between them, but it turned out that Blaine could barely leave the cabin, and in any way he preferred to have Kurt always locked up in his private cab, so to keep him safe and controlled day and night.

Kurt hated it. He was bored, tired, and missed his boyfriend. And he wanted to see the cabin, he had asked Blaine countless time to let him go there and watch him as he drove the train, but Blaine insisted it was safer to keep him in his room, and never let him out, and if he had to watch those same four walls for another _instant_ Kurt was sure he would have gone crazy.

He couldn’t believe he had been so excited for this trip. What an adventure it will be!, he had thought while planning the departure; he couldn’t wait to be on that train, to pass through the Midlands with all their little villages, to see the high mountains on the horizon shelter the sun as it was setting while the rail led them straight to the Capital. And he couldn’t wait to see the Capital itself, with all his iron palaces, and the Queen, of course, oh, how he couldn’t wait to finally meet the Queen. He had always dreamed to just have a little taste of the adventures Blaine lived in his everyday life, and he couldn’t even look at himself, now, trapped in a stupid wagon with a stupid stone in a stupid box and nothing but the desert all around because Blaine thought it would be safer not to take the way through the Midlands.

  


He was sick of it all, and he was about to grab the phone hanging on the wall, the one Blaine used to communicate with him from the cabin without even having to move, to call him with the specific intent of fighting, when he heard a soft knocking on the door.

Finally! Something happening! Kurt could barely believe it, the knocking had been so soft it could have just as easily be nothing but his mind playing tricks on him. “Who is it?” he asked, standing up from the armchair he had been half-sleeping in boredom since he had woken up that morning.

“Private soldier Melchior Gabor, sir, serial number 114220316. I ask permission to come in, sir.”

Kurt chuckled lightly, covering his mouth with one hand as he tried to muffle the sound so the soldier wouldn’t hear it. He still hadn’t had the time to get used to how formal Blaine’s soldiers were. He really knew how to keep them in line. “Come in, please,” he said, smiling gently as the soldier opened the door and walked inside his room.

He was tall – at least compared to Blaine, after all – and kind of handsome, Kurt had to admit. He had pale skin and wavy light brown hair, and his eyes were a light, mysterious shade of a mixed tone in between green and grey. He was smiling warmly, standing there in his elegant uniform, as he politely saluted him with a little bow.

“I hope you’re finding yourself comfortable in here, sir,” he said. Kurt chuckled, nodding without hesitation.

“Of course, of course,” he answered, “But please, just call me Kurt.”

“I can’t, sir,” Melchior laughed a bit, “My commander would certainly reproach me if I dared.”

“Oh, but I won’t tell him, I promise,” Kurt insisted, playfully winking at him, “It’ll be our little secret.”

Melchior laughed once more, but he didn’t answer to that. He probably knew it wouldn’t have been proper for a soldier like him to play that way with somebody like Kurt. Blaine really knew how to handle his men, after all.

“Sir, I’m here because commander Anderson asked for your presence in the head cabin,” Melchior said, “Would you be kind enough to follow me?”

Kurt’s eyes immediately started to shine as a happy smile appeared on his lips. “Oh, my Gods,” he said, folding his hands over his chest, “He remembered! I asked him to let me see the cabin so many times!”

How could Kurt be so mean, how could he think Blaine had forgot about him, or was keeping him locked up in that room because he didn’t care about what he wanted? Of course Blaine cared! Of course he did, he was clearly just waiting for the right moment to call him! He was carrying the responsibility of his safety on his shoulders, and Kurt would have understood that better. He would have waited patiently for his fiancée to be sure there were no threats around, because, as it was obvious now, Blaine was just waiting for a safe moment when he could tell him to come without worry for his life.

His fiancée was a hero, a noble and honourable man, and Kurt loved him so much he couldn’t wait to finally see him again so he could show him.

“Commander Anderson also wanted me to ask you if you could bring that device you’re carrying with you on the cabin,” Melchior added, “He would like to watch it closely.”

“Of course,” Kurt answered without even listening to him. He was too happy to be concerned about that stupid stone or everything else in the world, for that matter. He was about to see Blaine! He was about to stand by his side while he drove the train towards the Capital in the blinding light of the day! He couldn’t imagine anything more adventurous or exciting.

He took the little velvet box the stone was kept in and followed Melchior out of the room.

“Weren’t there two soldiers here?” Kurt asked as Melchior led him along the wagons, walking slowly so to let him free to take a look around. He was grateful to Melchior to be so kind to him, he must’ve guessed or known that Kurt hadn’t really had the chance to explore the train before, but not seeing the soldiers he was sure Blaine had put to guard his door was kind of making him nervous.

“Yes, sir,” Melchior nodded, moving from one wagon to the other and keeping the door open for Kurt to pass through it, “Since I was going to take care of you here, commander Anderson asked them over to the head cabin. You know how it is on a battletrain, we can’t just leave men guarding an empty room.”

“Actually, I don’t really know how it is on a battletrain, since I had never been into one before three days ago,” Kurt chuckled, “But it makes sense. I guess you’re all very busy, all day long.”

“Constantly,” Melchior nodded, helping him into yet another wagon.

“Thank you,” Kurt said, actually looking around himself for the first time since they had left his room. “Wait a minute, isn’t this the end of the train?” he asked, looking outside the window.

“It would appear so,” Malchior nodded, opening the last door. Instantly, the wind started to blow inside the wagon so hard and fast Kurt had to grab one of the handles hanging down from the ceiling not to fall on the ground.

“What are you doing?!” Kurt screamed, terrified, “Weren’t you supposed to bring me to Blaine?!”

“Oh, was I?” Melchior asked, his formerly kind smile turning quickly into a way more wicked one.

Kurt felt his heart skip a beat and held on to the handle tighter. “Who the hell are you?” he asked in a breath.

He didn’t have the time to hear the answer, though. “Jesse St. James,” the man answered, hitting him on the back of his head and managing to grab the little velvet box he let go of fainting, before it could hit the ground, “Nice to meet you.”

Jesse opened the jacket of the uniform he had stolen from one of the soldiers he had found outside of Kurt’s room before throwing them both out of the windows, and put the box in one of the countless inner pockets it had, and then retrieved Kurt’s unconscious body from the ground, lifting him up on his own shoulders. He secured the sleeping boy on himself with a rope and then walked outside the train, jumping on the two-seater floating air-scooter tied to the iron handrail.

Whistling happily, perfectly satisfied with himself, he cut the rope and flew away.

*

The Warbler was the first train of the fleet and the first battletrain ever built, too. It had a body of iron, a steam turbine and four alchemy powered auxiliary engines. When it first came out, more than a hundred years prior, its only engine was coal-powered and it was replaced ten years after with a modern, more functional model, which was the one it had now.

Not the newest train of the fleet, perhaps, but the more reliable.

Blaine had driven it for five years and he wouldn't have changed it for any of those ten-engines monstrosities that industry was building nowadays. They were gorgeous and well armed, absolutely essential to fight the war, but they still couldn't compete with the flagtrain's stability. To date, the Warbler was still the best train, as far as the ratio between power, speed and endurance was concerned. Also, the flagtrain didn't need to be the best, but it needed to be indestructible because it was the only real reference point in battle. All the other conductors would look for it if they were in trouble, therefore it could not fall easily, for it was the sign that the army had still hope, that it was still fighting. And the Warbler, with his century of service, had never broken down but once, while Blaine had at least forty of the latest units in repair every week.

Blaine checked the pressure gauge and the levels of energy in the engine compartment through the control panel Hummel had installed on the bridge. Everything seemed perfectly normal. Cruising speed was good and at this pace he could hope to get to Capital City on schedule, given the pirates didn't decide to attack, which would have been unfortunate indeed.

Usually, it would have been reporting via radio to the command every twelve hours about his squadron's whereabouts and status, but the delicate nature of the current mission required total secrecy because communications between the train and the headquarters however coded could still have been intercepted, and he couldn't let it happen.

Therefore, left with really nothing to do, he realized this was a good moment to show Kurt the train, for he had been asking to visit it since their departure. He called an orderly and when he came, clicking his heels and giving a salute, he ordered him to fetch his fiancée from the cabin he had been locked in for three days and escort Kurt to him.

Knowing Kurt, Blaine doubted him would be in any way interested in what the Warbler was. Kurt wasn't exactly the kind of young man who fancied train or the art of war, in general. He was artistic, he loved art, singing and theatre. He would not understand the poetry of the pistons moving in perfect harmony, like the giant keys of a piano, pushing the train forward instead of making music. But that was one of the reason Blaine loved him so much. They were so different from one another, and still shared so much. Like a passion for music, Blaine himself used to sing from time to time, even though he was not good at it as Kurt was.

They were a strange couple, Kurt and him. 

They had met by chance, in a moment when Blaine wasn't thinking about love at all. He had just been named commander of the royal fleet and he was determined to live up to the honour that had been given to him. All his efforts and energy were focused solely on lead a battle after the other and possibly to win the war as soon as possible, bringing the Iron Lands back to the peace they had long forgotten.

It was late April, some time after the fleet's victory at Kinley's point – one of the most strategic and important sites on the borders, that the pirates was about to take, opening a way not only between the fleet's lines, but to the Iron Lands as well – and a party to celebrate the astounding performance of the Queen's fleet had been thrown by a rich merchant of a city nearby. All the highest in command were there, together with all the personages of the towns all around. Mister Hummel and his son were invited to, in consideration of what the alchemist had done for the fleet.

Blaine and Kurt had never met before, but Blaine knew Burt. The two of them were talking about possible modifications on the Warbler, when Kurt had approached them, taking his father away from him with a polite apology in his direction. Blaine could honestly swear he hadn't be able to look at anything else but Kurt, that night. His eyes had followed him through the room, even when he had been expected to listen to his superiors asking about this or that detail of the battle. Every time he lost sight of Kurt's peculiar outfit, his eyes would look for it until they find it again. By the end of the night, he could recognize Kurt in the crowd by the mere sight of a button.

They didn't speak at all that night, except for saying goodbye.

Blaine had been pleased, though, to see in Kurt's eyes the same kind of longing desire that he was sure was in his own. For this reason, he had found the courage to try and court him, because all of a sudden, fight an entire fleet of pirate ships with one single battletrain left seemed easier than ask Kurt out. Blaine's visits to Burt's lab became quite frequent and so did the invitations to stay for dinner. After what felt the millionth time that he was invited to stay and he spent the time nodding politely to whatever Burt was saying while looking at Kurt and smile awkwardly every now and then, Burt had taken the problem in his own hand and asked abruptly – and a little bit sternly to add a touch of scariness – if Blaine liked his only son, for it certainly looked so. Blaine had turned red, and Kurt purple but Burt had stood his ground. “You two don't do anything but look at each other all day,” he had said. “I gave you plenty of chances to make a move, so now please do it or give up because I can't bare the lovey-dovey act any longer.”

And Blaine did it. He asked the man the honour to court Kurt and he said yes. They went out a couple of times, but it was clear since the beginning that they were meant to be together. Four years after, which means a year before this mission had became necessary, Blaine had asked Burt for Kurt's hand and they were now going to marry soon, possibly after the end of the war that both Burt and Blaine felt closer and closer with the discovery of the stone.

He was smiling stupidly at the window of the head cabin, looking not at the dry beauty of the desert but at his own mental images of how the wedding was going to be according to Kurt's fashion sense, when the door of the cabin burst open and his orderly run in, screaming his name.

“Commander Anderson,” he said, breathing heavily. “Mister Hummel is gone, sir. The room is empty and I couldn't find him.”

“What?” Blaine moved away from the window as all the wedding images disappeared from his head, his brain entering in a perfect emergency-mode. “What do you mean he is gone? Did you ask the men at his door?”

“They are gone too, sir.”

“Damn!” Blaine was already in motion before the orderly had even stopped speaking. He started running down the hall and the soldier run after him, awaiting orders. “He's been abducted. Call the security. Stop the train. Block all the exits. Now!”

The young orderly stopped and took out his radio, which frizzled a little as soon as he pressed the button. “Attention, to all units on board. We have a breach. Repeat: we have a breach. Suspected intruder. Train in red mode.”

The orderly didn't need to say his name or that it was Blaine's order. Whoever was accused of pretending a red code for a battletrain would go to the court-martial. Nobody would ever dream of playing like that, so if a red mode had been called, then it had to be real. The brakes were pulled a second after, while the orderly was still shouting about the state of emergency. The train screeched, a wave of sparkles washed over the windows as the brakes bit at the tracks. The train jumped to a stop and then, all together windows and doors shut down, leaving the whole train in the dark for a brief moment before the emergency light turned on.

Used to every single movement of his train in battle, Blaine was unaffected by its jumping and shaking, and he kept moving down the hall, avoiding things falling down from the highest shelves and soldiers throwing themselves out of the cabins and running to their duties. He shouted orders as he passed them by, taking some with him for good measure.

Kurt's door was open, obviously. He quickly checked the room but as soon as he saw his window was intact he didn't waste any more time and kept running down the hall. Whoever took Kurt had had to run that way, because they were coming from the other. He passed an awful numbers of intersections, scattering his men in each and every wagon to check for Kurt while he run forward.

There was a strange noise ahead. Some sort of enduring whistle with a knocking sound in the background. It took him a few moments to realize the whistle was strong wind coming in the train from outside, meaning that one of the exits had to be open. When he reached it, the last door was open. The shutter had closed too late and not completely. He knelt down to discover that the knocking sound was the end of a rope, slamming against the side of the train. Looking up, he saw a flying vehicle in the distance, the intruder and his precious load were gone.

“Flying vehicle, probably a scooter, going South-Eastwards” he said in his radio. “I want two squads after it.”

“Roger,” A frizzling voice said from the other end. “Squad one and two ready, sir.”

“Get him and take back Hummel and his load.”

“Roger.”

The orderly caught up with Blaine as he put away the radio. “The train is clear, sir. What are the orders, now?”

Blaine sighed. There wasn't much he could do. There were no doubts Kurt had been kidnapped by the pirates, but he couldn't just turn the train around and go toward the Floating Lands. That constantly moving place was too dangerous to walk through without a map to follow. He had to hope the squads got Kurt back or at least catch up with the scooter and followed it, so to know exactly where he was heading to. “We get the Warbler ready,” he said as he walked back to the head cabin. Once there, he unlocked the system and cleared the state of emergency. “We leave as soon as we have the coordinates.”

“Yes sir,” the orderly said, nodding.

Around them the Warbler came back to life, roaring and ready to fight if necessary, as its conductor was.

*

Jesse had driven his scooter randomly for almost two hours before getting bored and nose-diving toward the ocean, run on the surface of the water for three miles and then literally disappear behind one of the many falls generated on the floated stones, giving the slip to Blaine's soldiers, running after him on their flying vehicles. He had confused them for a while, taking them away from the Warbler and right at the board of the pirates territory, where he could orient himself and they couldn't. The game was over.

He turned off the scooter's engine and waited, hidden behind one of the huge masses of rock floating in mid-air. He watched them search for him around, but not daring to cross the border. They could, of course, try and follow him, maybe they could even catch him – Jesse wasn't so sure about that but he was willing to give the poor guys at least that merit – but without a map of the rocks' migration, they were bound to turn around with their precious intruder and find themselves trapped in a labyrinth that wasn't there before. And in the land of pirates, being a group of royal soldiers away from their battletrain was never a good idea.

Jesse had to admit they were persisting, though. They searched for at least another hour, forcing him to check on Kurt and see if he was waking up, before giving up and preparing to go back to their commander to tell him he was lost.

In the beginning, the Floating Lands were attached to the continent, separated from the Iron Lands by that same Midlands that now were the reason of the war. Then various earthquakes opened a crack in the ground, that eventually resulted into big chunks of rock the size of cities to come off the land. But instead of staying where they were, they started floating due to the alchemical energy in excess, that was also the main cause of the earthquakes to begin with. Alchemists said those parts of the land were lost, because the energy was bound to run out sooner or later. The rocks would fall into the ocean, bringing the cities with them. 

People left the rocks and their cities, and went to live in the Midlands or in the Iron Lands, if they had enough money. Many of them even faced the long journey to the Capital, hoping to find a job as servants and maids, there. The Floating Stones were abandoned, awaiting for them to fall and disappeared in the deep waters eight hundreds feet below them. 

But it never happened.

Somehow, the energy that was keeping the rocks in the air started to interact with the energy on solid ground, creating currents that would keep these rocks floating but push them around in no predictable patterns. Because of its constantly changing geography, the Floating Lands became the perfect place to hide for runaways and criminals and people who needed to disappear from the face of the world for whatever reason. They started to live there and developed a way to understand the migration of the stones they lived on and they built ships that could fly, powered with little stones extracted from the floating rocks. And like sailors at sea, they learned how to orient themselves in a land with very few constant landmarks.

They built their own kingdom, mirroring the one that had turned them into outcasts and they took their revenge on it by attacking the people on the ground and stealing from them. They started roaming the sky in little fleets, they became pirates and the rest was history.

Jesse waited for the royal soldiers to fly away and disappear beyond the line of the horizon before turning on the engine again. Kurt was moaning now and stirring every now and then, he needed to get to the target soon. He came out from behind his hiding place and speeded up through the path of rocks without hesitation. Jesse wasn't born in the Floating Lands but he knew exactly how to move through them. A man with his kind of job needed to be able to find his way wherever he was, otherwise he wouldn't live very long. And since he planned to have a long, happy life and then retire at a very old age in one of the tropical islands in the South to enjoy all the money he would have had, he was very good at saving his ass in every possible situation.

It took him another hour to get to where he needed to be.

Eventually, the hugest rock he had seen so far slowly moved aside to reveal a pirate ship, glorious and shiny in the dying light of the day. And behind it, about other twenty ships, smaller and somehow not as impressive as the flagship but still visibly as armed. This fleet was huge, and it wasn't the only one. Jesse knew for a fact that, twenty miles East from there, there was another one, as big as this one, and the same went from twenty miles in every direction. The pirates were indeed a power to be reckon with, because they had done the only thing they needed to do: they joined forces and they were now many, angry and merciless.

Jesse approached the flagship slowly and stopped in mid-air thirty feet from it, knowing pirates tended to shoot at anything they didn't know and that moved around their ship. A man with a purple bandana over a ruffled head of blonde hair frowned at him and squinted his eyes as if he couldn't see very well. 

“Who th' hell be ye?” He asked in a deep, throaty voice before coughing and then spitting in the ocean.

Jesse made a face at his astounding lack of grammar, but he smiled anyway. “Hello good sir, my name is Jesse St. James. Your captain is waiting for me. I have something he wants.”

The pirate looked at him very intently, as if he was trying to understand what exactly Jesse was saying, which was ridiculous since it should have been the other way around. Eventually, he seemed to give up on some of the words and focus only on the ones he understood, which were very few.

He nodded and then turned his head. “Avast, thar, Cap'n, thar be a scurvy dog here who says ye be waitin' fer him,” he shouted. “He says his name be Jesse St. somethin'. I shoot him?”

He was speaking to someone Jesse couldn't see, but he could hear the clear, stern voice answering him and recognize it as the captain's voice. “Of course you don't shoot him, you idiot. Let him on board.”

“Aye, Cap'n.” The pirate nodded again and then turned to Jesse again. “Th' Cap'n says ye can come on board. Leave that sailin' thin' thar 'n use th' ladder.”

After he said that, a rope ladder was thrown overboard for him. He got the scooter closer to the side of the ship and then climbed the ladder, with Kurt's sleeping body secured to his back. Once he got on top, the blonde pirate helped him out, almost dragging him on board. “Here, ye land people be not jolly at gettin' on a ship.”

“Thank you, sir,” Jesse said, dusting off his trousers. He carefully took Kurt off his shoulders and lied him on the planks, where he moaned a little and then curled up in his sleep. The captain came forward, taking a couple of slow steps toward him and stopping a few feet away, right next to the blonde pirate who obligingly took a step back. “Captain Karofsky.”

“St. James,” the captain grumbled. 

Captain Karofsky was a big, sturdy young man, with dark brown hair and a constantly pissed off expression on his squared face that made him look like if he had just eaten something nasty. He hadn't missed any limbs yet and his eyes were a deep brown that matched the planks of his ship when they got wet at high tide. In his early twenties, he was quite young to be ruling a ship as big as The Fury but he was the son of a captain, the grandson of a buccaneer and the nephew of a corsair, so he wasn't expected to be less than a sea robber himself. He had got his ship and half the crew from his father, but the rest of his men and the other ships that followed his lead he had owned himself.

Jesse didn't like pirates too much – actually, he didn't like anyone in general too much, because liking someone required a certain amount of interest toward other human beings which he lacked by nature – but he found Karofsky amusing, and he enjoyed the brief moments they spent in civilities before their business.

As a pirate, he was quite peculiar. First of all, he wasn't cursed with the usual blatant ignorance. His notorious grandfather was the illegitimate son of a baron and had been educated in the finest school before going off roaming the sea. The old man was a true pirate, but he had as well the heart of a man of letters. He loved books as much as he loved treasures and he passed his passion to his son and to his son's son after that. Even though Karofsky had a lot of the restlessness of his father Paul, which made him a troubled soul, he was much like his grandfather as far as his education was concerned. Secondly, he followed no rules but his own, and that was something Jesse could relate to.

“I was starting to think you'd never show up. You're late,” Karofsky said.

Jesse smiled charmingly as he always did. “I have my reasons, sir. Men of the Queen were after me, I had to get rid of them in order to get here unharmed and with your requested goods safe and sound in my hands. So I did and here I am. I believe this should be a good enough explanation to be forgiven.”

“I suppose it is,” Karofsky granted. “Do you have what I asked?”

“As I said, I do,” Jesse smiled again and rummaged in his jacket's inside pocket, retrieving the little box. “This is the device you wanted and the kid here was the one who had it.”

Karofsky tilted his head, frowning as he watched Kurt. “This is not Hummel,” he said.

“Actually, he is. Kurt Hummel, only son of Burt Hummel and his late wife, died during a raid of your fellow pirates ships in Lima town, approximately ten, maybe fifteen years ago.”

The captain was totally unimpressed by Jesse's knowledge. “Still, the son of the alchemist is not what I asked you.”

“No, what you asked me was to bring you the box and who had it and that's exactly what I brought you, Karofsky,” Jesse said. “If you don't like it, that's fine. Feel free to lodge a complaint to the battletrain army of Her Majesty, but don't blame me.”

In the meanwhile, Kurt was finally starting to wake up. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the point of Karofsky's sword, aimed at his neck as the captain was arguing with Jesse over his body. “Are you trying to fuck with me, St. James?”

“For God's sake, no!” Jesse sighed. “He was on the train with the box. There wasn't anyone else. I'm sorry if you are disappointed, but let me tell you, you should get your information right next time, if you don't want this kind of unfortunate situations to happen. Now, if you'd be so kind as to pay me.”

“Who are you?” Kurt said as he tried to move away from both of them and failed because his hands and feet were tied.

“Avast, Cap'n, he be awake,” the blonde pirate said, drawing Kurt's attention toward himself and the dozen of other men on the ship.

“Oh my Gods, you are pirates!” Kurt screamed, hearing the way he spoke. He wiggled away and turned to Jesse, glaring at him. “You sold me to the pirates, you bastard!”

“At least I was trying to before you woke up and delayed this transaction even further,” he answered. Then he sighed, as if to regain his composure. “Captain, if you don't mind, it's getting late and I have other things that I need to take care of.”

Karofsky wasn't convinced about the whole matter and his crew seemed to notice that. His men came closer, all with swords or pistols in hand. Kurt started screaming even louder, accusing Jesse of treachery and ordering the pirates to stay away from him because he was the fiancée of Blaine Anderson, commander of the Warbler, first battletrain of the Queen and that soon the whole army of Her Majesty would fall upon them to save him. 

Nobody listened to him.

“Dave, you wanted the thing. You have it,” the voice of a woman said, apparently out of thin air. “So, cut the bullshits and let's see if it works. The kid here is the son of the alchemist, he must know something. If he doesn't we will use him to get to the man himself.”

Kurt shut up immediately, terrified by the ghostly voice. He looked up at Jesse, but he was as calm as ever and nobody seemed to mind that a bodiless woman was speaking to them. “Did you hear it too?”

“What if he's screwing with us?” Dave said to the voice, showing that he had indeed heard it.

“He would never do that, wouldn't he?” the incorporeal woman said. “He knows that we hunt down, torture, skin and kill bastards.”

Jesse smiled as if that was a compliment. “I would never dare, miss Lopez. I swear to the Gods that this kid is Burt Hummel's son and the box he brings with him is the device you asked me to retrieve.”

“Aye, fine. Gimme that.” Karofsky reached out but Jesse shook his head. “What?”

“We are both gentlemen, aren't we, captain?” Jesse titled his head. “Let's do as gentlemen do.”

Karofsky nodded to one of his pirates, a beautiful young lady with a blonde pony tail on the top of her head who came forward, dangling her hips on a pair of staggering heeled boots. “If you are a leprechaun, why are we giving you money? Shouldn't be the other way around?” She said, giving him a sachet of clinking coins. She had the most beautiful blue eyes Jesse had ever seen. It was a pity they couldn't do nothing for her blank expression, probably mirroring a severe case of vacancy in her brain too.

“C'mere, me beauty,” the same pirate said as he grabbed the girl by her wrist and dragged her away from Jesse. “Ye need to sleep, Brit, ye be knowin' that.”

Britney nodded vaguely and walked away with the man, turning to look at Jesse every now and then, probably making sure he wasn't going to disappear. “Here is your device, Captain,” Jesse said, giving the little velvet box to Karofsky. “And the kid, of course, is yours too. I suggest that you treat him well. Anderson seems very fond of him and the man's got money, if you know what I mean.”

“This is none of your business, St. James,” Karofsky growled as he nodded to a couple of pirates who lifted a screaming Kurt from the ground and took him away. “Now, get lost. I've seen enough of you face for a lifetime.”

“I would love to oblige, but unfortunately there is something else I need to retrieve from this ship before I can consider myself excused,” Jesse said with a bow. “Now, I would ask you if you keep your marine charts in your cabin, Captain, and where it might be, but I feel you won't tell me, am I right?”

Karofsky frowned, not getting what was happening for a moment. “What are you talking about?”

“Someone else – I don't want to name names, let's just say he is a renown train conductor who happens to drive the same train that was transporting Hummel, what a coincidence! – asked me to get the charts and since he too was paying, I couldn't say no, could I?”

Karofsky literally growled, unsheathing his sword. “Take him! Take him but don't kill him,” he shouted to his men, scattered all around the deck. “I wanna do that!”

“There's no need to be so touchy!” Jesse said, swirling away from the grasp of a pirate and then jumping on a barrel to avoid the sword of another. “I'll find the cabin by myself, thank you very much.”

From the barrel, Jesse jumped up on the quarterdeck and then, he turned around to fend with two pirates from up there. While the entirety of his crew flocked toward Jesse and followed him on the quartedeck, Karofsky went the other way, knowing that St. James was going to jump down sooner or later.

Jesse didn't want to kill anyone, it wasn't his style. But he didn't have nothing against wounds, especially if they could help getting him out of bad situations. So he cut people open here and there and he scratched one pirate's face from cheekbone to chin, actually making him more handsome. He walked backward, looking back every once in a while to avoid a pitiful, totally not gorgeous fall.

“I appreciate your eagerness, gentlemen,” he said after a while, “but I need y'all to back off, now.”

Suddenly, he dove on the ground, propping himself up with his free hand as he swung the sword with the other. He kicked the first man in line in his shin and he fell to the ground, bringing with him all the ones behind him. Jesse took a moment to himself to watch the scene. “Oh, that's why I love bowling.”

Then he jumped off the quarterdeck, right in front of the door of the captain's cabin.

When he landed, Karofsky was there. “Where do you think you're going?”

“I get you feel violated by me entering your cabin. I know, everybody always does,” he said, as they started fencing. Like two trained dancers, they moved in circle, every hack and perry precise and graceful, beautiful to watch. Karofsky's men stopped where they where, keeping an eye on the intruder, in case he escaped from the captain. “But I swear to the Gods and to the soul of my poor mother, that I'll be as unobtrusive as possible.”

“Shut up and surrender!”

“I'm afraid this is not possible. Would you try and order me something else? Who knows, I might even like it!” Jesse didn't lose his smile as he looked around, searching for a way out. He found it when he saw the copper bracelet on the captain's left wrist glowing red. He avoid Karofsky's hack by bending down and then rolled on the ground. When he was ready again, he aimed his sword not to the man but to the bracelet.

“Dave, watch out!” The voice of the woman screamed.

Karofsky focused exclusively on avoiding the blow and saving the bracelet. He withdrew the arm just in time, so Jesse ended up only scratching the back of his hand, but the captain got distracted and when he looked up again, St. James had already locked himself in the cabin.

Once he was inside the captain's cabin and the door was locked, Jesse leaned against for a second, catching his breath. From outside, came the voices of the pirates, already re-organizing to knock the door down. He would have to search fast if he wanted to get out of there alive and with the charts. The cabin was huge, considering that the other hundred men slept all crowded in half the space. The captain had a four posted bed with an upholstered headboard, a wooden table that had to weight as much as the ship, more books that he would care to count and a chest in a corner that Jesse would have loved to empty if he had the time.

“So many robberies, so little time,” he sighed, dramatically as he went through the papers on the table. 

“St. James, you are a dead man!” The captain shouted in a deep, angry voice.

“Aren't we all?” He answered, as he threw the log book behind his back. “You know, it's a mess in here. How are you supposed to find anything?”

Under the pirates' blows, the door was already cracked and twisted. Jesse could see their dark, sometimes missing eyes from a hole they managed to open. “Alright, it's time to get out of here,” he murmured to himself. That was when he saw the marine charts spread on the table like a tablecloth under everything else, and pinned down with heavy stones at the four corners. “Here you are.”

He moved everything else aside with an arm and he rolled the charts. By the time he was done, the door blasted open and a ridiculous number of pirates started coming in, Karofsky in the lead. Jesse was out of the window already, and climbing the broadside to get back on deck. Once there, he met Karofsky again. The bracelet was still there, but Jesse couldn't try the same trick twice, so he had to fence with the man for real, this time.

“You're not gonna leave my ship alive with those!” The captain roared.

“Come on, Capitain! I bet you don't even need them, anymore” he said, slowly moving around him to get closer to the shrouds. “Let's donate to the unfortunate people who don't know their way around here.”

Karofsky lunged but he missed. Jesse had jumped and grabbed the shrouds, heaving himself up with one arm. The captain growled and followed him, but Jesse was slimmer and faster, and he moved like a monkey. The sword back in its sheathe and the charts secured to his belt, he climbed the shrouds up to the top, with Karofsky on his heels and his crew climbing next to him, knives between his teeth and all.

He looked around, feeling Karofsky's grin of triumph on himself. “It's over, St. James,” The captain said. “Hand me the charts, and we'll be even.”

“I would, seriously, if I was trapped.”

“Well, I'm sorry to break it for you, but you are.”

Jesse's face lighted up and he smiled so graciously that for a moment Karofsky was confused. This man was trapped on top of the mainmast of his ship with his whole crew after him, why was he fucking smiling? Then Jesse jumped. He let himself go in the air, overboard. They waited to hear the splash but there was none. One moment, and the man showed up again, waving on top of his scooter.

“Thank you, Captain!” He shouted, giving him a salute. “It was a blast! We should really do it again another time.”

The crew looked at Karofsky, waiting for orders but he knew they couldn't follow him now, because the ship would never move fast enough to catch up with him. Dave took his time to calm down and then just turned around, like Jesse's escape didn't even matter. “We can do without the charts, but we need to follow other paths,” he said, serious. “Prepare the Fury, we are sailing in half an hour.”

As the crew run on deck to get everything ready, the bracelet glowed again. “What about St. James?”

“The tide will bring him back to us sooner or later,” he answered the woman.

Then, he entered the cabin and locked himself in.


	2. Chapter 2

Jesse brought the scooter as close to the train as he possibly could, and then, taking advantage of how slowly the Warbler was moving – in a desperate attempt to stay closer to the place where Kurt had been abducted, he guessed – he jumped on it, landing with a graceful roll.

Once he was sure he could stand on his feet, he stood up, combing his hair so to try and erase the effect of the wind on his mane, and then he watched the scooter get smaller and smaller as the train put more and more distance between them. 

He waited until it disappeared, and then he opened the trapdoor a couple of steps away from him, easily passing through it and landing on the carpeted floor of the train, slightly flexing his knees to soften the effect of his jump.

Nobody noticed him until he decided to made himself known. He discretely slipped inside the head cabin and waved his hand at Blaine. “Hello, commander Anderson. You seem troubled and that’s doing nothing good for your wrinkles.”

“Where the _hell_ are you coming from?!” Blaine almost screamed in rage, flailing his arms in the air.

“A bit here, mostly there,” Jesse shrugged, retrieving the maps secured to his hips, “Why is it even a problem?”

“Because I didn’t even see you coming in!” Blaine screamed once more, but then Jesse frowned and he tried to calm down, breathing slowly in and out. “I’m sorry. I happen to be in a very delicate moment.”

“That much I guessed,” Jesse nodded, “May I ask why?”

Blaine sighed desperately, as if saying it out loud – and therefore admitting his failure – was even harder than simply dealing with the whole situation as it was.

“Somebody kidnapped my fiancée, Kurt,” he said, letting himself go on his seat behind the wheel, “Hummel’s son.”

“No!” Jesse answered, his voice and face a perfect imitation of surprise, “Who dared?”

“Those damned pirates!”

“You don’t say!” Jesse went on, eyes opened as wide as he could, “How could they possibly break the Warbler’s safety system?”

“We have no clue,” Blaine sighed, passing a hand over his face and then through his hair with another desperate sigh, “But you can bet we’re going to hunt them down and make them pay with their blood.”

“Now, now,” Jesse said, sporting a peaceful smile, “Try and think straight. You can’t just go and chase down flying pirates with your clearly non-flying train, can you? You don’t even know where they’re going. Yet,” he smiled, opening the maps right under Blaine’s eyes. “You’re lucky, though, because I happen to have accomplished the mission you paid me for.”

“You got them!” Blaine jumped up, grabbing the maps and looking intently at them. At first he was smiling kind of dumbly, but then his smile broke, and eventually it disappeared completely. “This makes no sense whatsoever,” he said, clearly disappointed, “Are these fake, St. James?!”

“You insult me, dear commander,” Jesse answered, making an outraged face, “They’re just encrypted. Of course pirates encrypt their maps.”

“Damn it,” Blaine hissed, turning towards his orderly, “Go call Sergeant Berry.”

The orderly saluted him with a “yessir” and ran out of the head cabin and down the train, one wagon after the other. It took him five minutes – five minutes Jesse spent curiously watching commander Anderson nervously walking up and down the cabin, muttering angry words at himself – to come back, this time not alone.

There was a girl with him, and the minute Jesse laid his eyes on her his world stopped spinning, and then started again, twice as fast.

Among the uncountable talents Jesse knew himself to have, love could hardly be called as one. Sure, he was charming, sure again, he was gorgeous looking, but he had never thought about using those gifts from the Gods to conquer the heart of a lady. The life he had chosen for himself wasn’t a life for a wife, children and a family. He was a mercenary, and even before that came his lust for robbery. He was what one could call a common criminal that had learned how to put his wicked talent to his clients’ use, but still that was what he _was_ , deep inside himself: a robber, a trickster, even a killer when killing was needed, and he loved it.

He loved his way of life so much he honestly thought there wasn’t enough room in his heart for anything else, but it appeared he was wrong about it.

Somehow, the only thing he could think about in that very moment was that Rachel was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen in his entire life, and that nothing, not even the biggest and shiniest diamond he ever had the chance to put his hands on, could compare to the fierce light in her chocolate brown eyes or the gorgeous wave of her dark hair, falling in gracious curls on her tiny shoulders.

“Commander Anderson,” she saluted Blaine, looking straight at him like every good soldier was taught to do during training, “My orders?”

“Here, Rachel,” Blaine walked towards her, handing her the maps, “Decode these marine charts. St. James just brought them from a pirate flagship. It will help us find them, and probably Kurt.”

Rachel only looked at Jesse for a second when her commander mentioned him, but to feel her gaze upon himself was the most exciting feeling Jesse had ever felt in his life. More than the pleasant shiver that usually ran up and down his spine when he was breaking into secret places to rob items of value, more than the deep and natural joy he felt every time he fenced with somebody, more than anything else. To be graced by a look from such a divine creature was giving him thrills beyond compare.

“Commander,” the girl said after a quick look at the charts, “I may be a good cartographer, possibly even the best out there,” she smiled without the smallest trace of modesty, which made Jesse’s heart beat faster, “But even with that, these charts are not only encrypted, but also describing a place I don’t know at all. Whatever path or coordinate I could make out of it would always be altered because of my poor knowledge of the Floating Lands. I’m sorry.”

“Fuck,” Blaine growled between his teeth, turning around and nervously walking away to try and calm down, “You’re telling me these are totally useless?! Even if we didn’t want to use them to find Kurt but just to trace the pirates’ trajectory as we wanted to do in first place, they’d be useless because there’s nothing we can do to understand them correctly?!”

“Wait a moment,” Jesse said, trying to hide how eager he was to talk, “You just need help. You need somebody who knows the Floating Lands as well as pirates does, and lucky for you, you have such a wonderful person on board right now.”

“What are you even talking about?!” Blaine barked at him, frowning, “We’re all Iron Lands people! There’s nobody who’s ever even _been_ to the Floating Lands among us!” he said, but he stopped talking when he saw Jesse suggestively arch his eyebrows and smile at him. “Nobody except you, of course.”

“And, lucky for you, I’ve just decided to free my agenda and dedicate all my time to the resolution of your problem,” Jesse grinned, “Of course, given you reward me adequately.”

Blaine growled again, clutching his fists down his sides. “You son of a bitch,” he hissed.

“Now,” Jesse said, putting on a clearly mockingly disappointed face, “Is this how you treat your friends, commander Anderson?”

“You’re not my friend,” Blaine corrected him, breathing in and taking a moment to regain his composure, “But you’re right, and I’ve got no other options. We’re going to head straight to the Capital and ask the Queen for a flying ship to chase the pirates down, and you,” he said, pointing his finger at Jesse, “You’re going to help Rachel decoding those charts.”

“I couldn’t ask for anything better,” Jesse said cheerfully.

It was probably true he didn’t have a talent for love. But sure as hell he could use every other talent he had to get to it.

*

Captain Karofsky looked at the line of the horizon, the only thing that didn't change during the day, and hoped they were really going in the right direction. Without his marine charts, he could only count on his memory and the good eyes of his men to navigate safely through the Floating Lands. It weren't the huge rocks that worried him – they moved slowly and a good helmsman such as the ones the Fury and the other ships of the fleet had would be able to turn their ship and avoid them in time – it was the danger they had to take, following alternative routes. He had split the fleet and some of it was preceding them to Titan by normal routes to play as a decoy if Anderson was – as the captain thought – going to follow them, but he still had more than half of it with him and it wasn't easy to manoeuvre a great number of ships when you didn't really know your surrounding.

Centuries of navigation through the Lands had made the pirates aware of certain patterns in the migration of the rocks. It wasn't true that they were never in the same place twice. It was just that most of the times, their route were so convoluted that they went back to the start only after hundreds of years. Some of the rocks had yet to go back for the first time, and some others wouldn't come back at all. Along the paths that they followed there were certain places that all the rocks would reach, sooner or later, moving in that specific direction. Nobody knew why. The pirates had made their charts based on those hot spots. Every Captain knew a few by heart but not all, and anyway only the major routes were charted. 

They had left the last known belt of rock half an hour before and the view was completely different, already. Instead of the crystalline skies and the reverberation of the sun shining on the waterfalls, there was a dense and chilly, white fog. It was so low that it covered everything, making dangerous for them to move if they couldn't see what was ahead. The sun shined through for a while, but then it gave up. It became so dark outside that Dave got away from the window and went to sit on the desk, on which a new parchment was stretched out. He had tried to draw some rough maps based on what books said about those unknown areas, but the descriptions of people who had actually been there was vague and in most cases they didn't make any sense, speaking of things Dave had never heard about. He knew though that there were beasts in those parts of the Lands. His grandfather talked about monsters the size of three ships. Dave didn't know if that was the truth or some story the old man liked to tell to scare the living shit out of him, but one thing was certain: he didn't want to find out.

It came a gentle knock on the door, and then Brittany entered his cabin, holding the bracelet in one hand. She wore a very short, puffy skirt made of various layers of different fabrics and a tight black petticoat, matching her leather boots. It wasn't easy to have female pirates on board, especially when they were half naked all the time, but with Santana as second in command, other arrangements were out of the question. Strongly affirming that women could do exactly what men did, even better than them, she was in charge of choosing their female crew; and as of now, none of his female pirates had ever disappointed Dave. Not even Brittany, who wasn't exactly the brightest of minds but was good with swords and very athletic. She was the fencing master of the crew and she had been teaching pirates to avoid being killed since the day she set foot on board. She was still the only one who was able to double jump backward but pirates weren't required to be acrobats too, so that was okay.

“Cap'n, can I come in?” She said, standing right in front of his desk.

Dave looked up from the maps and sighed. “You're already in, Brit.” She seemed confused to be told so, so he added, “It doesn't matter. What's up?”

Brittany gave him the bracelet. “She wants to speak with you,” she answered. “Now I have to go. My armadillo escaped again.”

Dave watched her speak and leave without interruption. She had already closed the door before he could even think of what to say about an armadillo he was pretty sure she hadn't at all. He decided to not care, because he had learned the hard way that most of the time trying to comprehend what was in Brittany's mind was a waste of time. He looked at the bracelet in his hands and smiled. It was a simple leather strap with a small, square mechanical box on it, that was made of iron like almost everything else. The gear itself was unimportant but it contained a mechanical device, as big as Dave thumb's nail, that held Santana's conscience and it was all that kept her alive. 

Five years before, of course Santana was a normal person.

She was the second in command and one of the best pirates out there. Dave entrusted her with the most important missions and he trusted her as he trusted himself. Sometimes she was present when Dave himself could not and it was during one of these times that she was shot. The conductors of the enemy trains all thought Dave was the one governing the ship. But when they assaulted it, they found her instead. She fought and killed a lot of them – so many that at the end the highest number of casualties was the Queen's – but she went down too.

Her current situation was very peculiar. She was not dead – because to be dead she had to die first – but now her conscience existed separated from her body. It was one of Hummel's invention that made it possible. It was a strange sort of gun that didn't shot bullets but magic – for what Dave knew – and was able to trap a person's soul inside a little device. The Queen's soldiers used it on prisoners, because souls took less space than bodies in prisons. Dave had haunted down the man who had pulled the trigger, retrieving the gun and the device. He had put the device on his bracelet, so that Santana could keep on living as freely as possible. Her body was not rotting but frozen in the last moment in which her soul had been into it. Dave kept it hidden in the heart of the ship, where only he could go, waiting for the moment he would know how to reunite the two parts she had been split into.

“You should really stop looking at her ass, you know?” Santana's voice came out loud and clear from the bracelet and startled him.

“I was not...” He blushed as he could feel Santana's eyes on him, so well she knew her. He coughed. “I was wondering about that armadillo she was talking about. She doesn't have one, does she?”

“That is a secret that shall remain concealed,” she said, very dramatically. Then she laughed. She would have been throwing her head backward, sitting on Dave's desk, if she had still her body. “So, how did it go with our prisoner?”

Dave let out a whiny moan and covered his face for a moment, ending up pinching his nose. He had spent almost two hours questioning Kurt and all he had got was a mounting headache. “It was useless,” he says. “The son doesn't know anything.”

“That's what he says,” Santana commented.

“No, I believe him. Actually, I doubt he knows something about anything in the world. He is spoiled and presumptuous. He doesn't even realize where he is and what we could do to him if he keeps acting like that. He is so sure Anderson can actually save him from this ship that I don't know if he knows something we don't about the commander or if he's just mad,” Dave shook his head. “Anyway, he said he was just bringing his father's invention to the Capital, and Anderson was escorting him. Hummel probably thought he was going to draw less attention or something. Now we have a stone that apparently can turn everything into iron, but we have no idea how to use it.”

“At least we have it,” Santana said, her voice glowing bright red. “Now they will have to come for us to get it back and we will be the ones setting conditions. We won't give this stone to them unless they give us rights to the Midlands.”

Dave nodded, but he looked sad. “Still, I want him to turn you back,” he said. “I showed that kid the gun and he said that it is useless. We need another one to reverse the process. Hummel must have it, and I want it.”

Santana managed to smile with her voice only, it was incredible how much she could express by speaking alone. “It's gonna be one of our conditions. We will exchange the kid with the gun, and everyone will be happy,” she said. “Now get us to Titan. We need to reorganize and prepare for battle.”

Dave nodded again. He secured her to his wrist and got on deck to check his crew and tell everyone what was going to happen next.

*

Two days had passed without news nor changes in his conditions. Kurt was still locked in a small cell inside The Fury's prison, which lacked in a proper accommodation, let alone hygienic conditions. The place stunk of urine and wine, and in the cell next to his there was a man named Ryerson who claimed to have been there for almost six years now. He was most disagreeable and had the tendency to cling to the bars and breath on Kurt's face every time he spoke, so Kurt was forced to always stay in the farthest corner of his cell, pressed against wooden tables that had seen things he didn't want to know.

Kurt was sure that this wasn't the proper way to hold him hostage. He was not anyone. He was the son of Burt Hummel, the country's first and most famous alchemist. His father was a well known man in the most important political circles. And if this wasn't enough already, Kurt was also the fiancée of Blaine Anderson, a war hero. You don't keep a man like himself in a stinky cell, in the deep of a dirty old ship full of mice, like any drunkard. He needed a good place to sleep and wash himself, and he needed food. Real food, not the slop that had kept coming and that he wasn't eating. His necessary interrogations would have to take place in his own room and he would have been questioned gently. He would have not answered, of course, but that would have been normal because that was how things went.

Instead, Captain Karofsky had came to the cells and barked at him all the time, showing no manners whatsoever. And when Kurt had not answered – also because he actually didn't know the answer – he had gotten mad and madder until he had left the prison screaming and saying that Kurt was not going to be given food until he answered. That was totally unacceptable. Kurt was sure that sometimes, somewhere, someone had to have written some rulebook on how to behave while holding hostage someone of his calibre. And clearly Karofsky hadn't read it.

“Why be ye so still?” Ryerson asked. “Be ye dead yet?”

“No!” Kurt turned to him, arms crossed over his chest. “I'm not dead. Stop asking me that question. Why would I be dead?”

Ryerson chuckled. “'Cause wee thin' like ye never last long.” 

Kurt put his nose up in the air. “I will last long enough, thank you very much,” he said. “My boyfriend is coming for me. I'll be out of here in no time.”

“Really? How come he's not here, then?”

Kurt looked away and pretended to be looking at something outside his cell, even though there was absolutely nothing to look at. “He must be searching for me in this place,” he said. “The ship is moving, it will take him some time but he will rescue me.”

“Let me be tellin' ye somethin', laddie,” the man said, pointing a grimy fingers at him. “Floatin' Lands be no place fer trains conductors. They need tracks to move.”

Kurt sighed like you would do with a noisy kid. “You don't know anything, do you? They use trains as means of transport and weapons. They move on tracks but soldiers can move from and towards them on scooters,” he explained, shaking his head. “Blaine just needs to take his scooter and a couple of his men, and he will find me. This ship is huge, after all. You can't miss it.”

Ryerson's laugh was harsh and loud. “It would be hard even if we were followin' th' routes, but we're not.”

Kurt frowned. “What do you mean?”

“We're not followin' th' same ol' routes, laddie. We're in th' wild.”

Kurt looked suspiciously at him. “How do you know that?”

Ryerson touched his nose and spoke in a low, creepy voice. “I smell it. 'Tis place stinks,” he said, spitting on the ground and making Kurt grimace in disgust. “Something's wrong around here. Th' air ain't good.”

Kurt ended up sniffing the air too. “It doesn't smell different to me.”

Ryerson shook his head and made some noise with his mouth closed. “It's rotten. Somethin' be movin' in th' fog wit' us. Somethin' bad.”

Kurt looked around as if he could see the fog and the things Ryerson was saying were hidden in it, but the prison had no portholes. Still, the air in the room seemed colder. Kurt hugged himself and cleared his throat, trying to be nonchalant about it. “Whatever. I'm not interested in your little stories,” he brushed him off. “You can't possibly know where we're headed because you can't see outside.”

“Oh, I don't need to spy wit' ye eye outside!” Ryerson said, shaking his head. “I be knowin' 'tis ship. I was helmsman 'o th' Fury fer twenty years. I be knowin' her every moan when she moves.”

There was some sort of innuendo in his words that made Kurt blush, so he ended up clearing his throat again. “So you were part of the crew?”

Ryerson nodded. “I be part 'o it. Just had a fight wit' th' cap'n but it gunna be over soon.”

Kurt thought that six years was well past soon but he didn't say anything. Pirates were horrible people, after all. It didn't surprise him that they had rules such as to live a proper member of their people rot in a cell for years with no process or any imprisonment regulation. 

“Anyway, if I were ye, I would free meself instead 'o waitin' fer that Anderson guy,” Ryerson continued. “I can be tellin' ye, he won't come. At least, not alive.”

“Oh, really?” Kurt said, frustrated. “And how am I supposed to free myself if I'm locked inside this cell? I don't have any key, do I? I swear you people can be very obtuse sometimes.”

Ryerson raised an eyebrow. The kid was really lazy for one who wanted to go back home. “Maybe I can help ye,” he said, rummaging in his pocket. He fished a big, old looking key and he handed it to him through the bars. Kurt hesitated because it was as dirty as the man's hand but eventually he took it with two fingers.  
“If you had the cell's key all this time, why haven't you escaped?” Kurt asked, suspiciously. 

Ryerson seemed surprised by the question. “To be off whar?” He said. “'tis be me ship. Plus, free food fer doin' nothin'. I don't wan to be off out. But ye be no people to be on a ship. Wait th' nightfall 'n then get 'o th' Fury. Get on th' deck 'n jump on th' first rock ye spy wit' ye eye before it gets really scary around here.”

Kurt looked at the key in his hands once again. He didn't know what to do because he really believed Blaine was coming. Still, it had been two days and he hadn't heard any sound of brawl coming from the deck above his head as it would have been if Blaine was really close. Eventually, he resolved to try and get off the ship by himself. Once I've reached one of the rocks, he said to himself, it will be easier for Blaine to find me.

Kurt had no idea when the night was going to fall, but Ryerson did. He told him when to open the door, an hour or so after the noise of the people on deck had subsided to peaceful snoring and the quiet, slow, pacing of the night watch. Then, he taught him how to slip on deck without no one notice. Kurt was scared to be caught, but he was more anxious to be free. So, eventually he resolved to do as he had planned and followed Ryerson suggestions.

The deck was empty, except for a couple of men, sitting and chatting. They didn't seem to stand guard over the ship very well, after all. He moved quietly, crouching as Ryerson told him and tried to take advantage of the many shadows extending everywhere on deck, thanks to an half-moon covered by the fog.

The view outside the ship was exactly as Ryerson had described. There was a thick, white fog giving the place an eerie look, but there were also a lot more rocks, moving around really close and the ship was going really slowly not to hit them, so it was going to be easy for him to jump on one of them. He tried not to think about the shadows he thought to see inside the fog. Whatever Ryerson said, monsters didn't exist and he needed to get off this stupid ship as soon as he could or Blaine was not going to find him.

He waited for six rocks to pass by before finding one that looked more welcoming than the others. It was a small one, the size of a little town with little yellow trees that looked vaguely like willows. He climbed on the ship's side and then jumped over when the rock was so close that he could have touched it by reaching out with his hand. He wasn't really the athletic type, but he managed to land safely, however rolling for a couple of feet. When he stood up, the ship was sailing away, no sign that anyone had seen him jump.

Kurt took his time to look around and see where he was and where he needed to go. He couldn't see the end of the rock because it was too big and the fog shaded half of it from his eyes anyway, but it looked deserted. Actually, it looked like no one had ever lived on it. There was a little bush of those yellow trees and little stones everywhere that glowed red and blue. Kurt didn't want to touch them, because they seemed covered in some oily substance he knew nothing about, but they were pretty to look at, even if a little creepy like the rest of the rock.

He deliberately chose to follow a path of blue-glowing stones because blue were the uniform of the train conductors and he walked for good part of an hour before reaching the edge. A few feet away another rock was floating, close enough for him to jump on it. It was as creepy as the first one, but there were no yellow trees or glowing stones to cheer up the place. A sooty air loomed over withered trees and weird-looking puddles of green water. Kurt didn't like them, so he made sure to walk away from them as much as possible, having no idea of where he was and where he was heading to. 

By the time he had reached his fourth floating stone, three hours had passed and he realized in horror that he had walked in circle. The only rock he could move on next was the very first one he had been on in the beginning and, as the fog dissipated temporarily thanks to a bout of wind, he found out he currently was on a ring of rocks floating together. He was stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no chance of moving in any direction but the one the ring was taking. The pirate ship seemed now his only way out, but the Fury was long gone.

Kurt felt discouragement rise from the bottom of his heart and squeeze it in the most hurtful of grip. He had to sit down because his head was spinning, caught in the fear of being lost to Blaine forever like the ship was to him. Suddenly, a place that was just creepy and cold became utterly scary and the wind was freezing. He hugged himself and looked around, hoping not to see those giant shadows in the fog. But here they were. Kurt closed his eyes and tried to calm down. He only needed to wait for the sun to come up. They were going to disappear, he tough. And then, with the morning light, everything would be easier.

*

Things were frantic on the Fury. Kurt's escape had been discovered about two hours after it happened and the whole crew had been in alarm since then. When asked, Ryerson had said the kid just vanished and Karofsky, not being in the mood to be merciful, had had him tied up to the ship's figurehead. Now, the helmsman was manoeuvring the Fury around as he tried to avoid the floating rocks to damage its flanks, and behind them at least other ten ships were having the same problem.

“I know how important he is to us at the moment,” Santana's voice said, “but how do you plan on finding him here, exactly?”

Dave was on deck, standing a few feet away from the loudly cursing helmsman and looking at the sea of fog as he tried to see something, anything, that could be of any help. “Searching for him,” he said.

Santana's light glowed quickly a couple of time, looking extremely frustrated. “That much I had imagined, Dave,” she said. “But do you really expect to find him here? This place is... unhealthy and he wouldn't survive even the safe routes.”

“He can't be gone too far, can he?” Dave asked and he didn't sound so sure about it. “He is on foot and he doesn't know how to move around here. I bet he sat down as soon as he realized there was nowhere to go without a ship.”

“I thought that much myself, but where? We don't know when he got off the ship,” Santana said.

Dave thought about it as the Fury moved back between rocks that were now in a totally different position than just one hour before. They seemed to move randomly around here and the fleet was risking to get lost itself going back and forth with no idea of their route. “We've been moving really slowly. We might have covered thirty-five miles, and I'm being optimistic. He has to be around the first belt of rocks we met, after that, the look-out said there has been only single rocks, too small or too high to jump on them without ropes.”

“Rock belts never get close to any other rocks. You get stuck on them,” Santana said. “Who in his safe mind would jump on one?” 

Dave never lost the habit of looking at the bracelet when he spoke to it as if he were talking to Santana herself, so he looked down at the glowing trinket. “Someone who doesn't know a single thing about the Floating Lands, Tana.” He turned around and shouted at the crew. “Make her move as fast as she can without breakin' her. I wanna be back on track before the rocks move again.”

It took them almost forty minutes and a very angry and cursing helmsman that swore to the Gods he was going to quit his job as soon as they set foot on Titan again to turn the Fury and the fleet around to get to the first belt of rocks. The fog hadn't dissolved as Dave had expected, being almost daybreak, actually it had gotten denser and the air was colder than it should have been with the sun about to rise.

“Somethin' be wrong, cap'n,” one of the men said. “Thar be bad thin's around here.”

Usually, Dave would not give credence to sailors' superstition, but for the first time in years he was almost willing to do so, because the place really was creepy. But he couldn't hope to find Hummel by looking from the deck, no matter how frightening the rock belt was. “We need to get off the ship,” he said aloud. “Three men with me. Brittany, take Santana.”

“Wait! What do you mean take me?” Santana screamed. “I wanna go with you.”

“Nope. I don't know what's out there, and the Fury needs a captain to go back to Titan,” Dave answered, securing the bracelet around Brittany's wrist. “If we don't get back by dawn, leave this place, join the rest of the fleet on Titan and pretend you have the alchemist's son. Everything must go on as we planned.”

Santana knew better than going against her captain's orders, especially if he was following the standard procedure. The ship needed a captain, and if Karofsky wasn't there to play the part, than it was up to her. Her glowing light blinked a couple of times in agreement, and then the little party left the ship and landed on the first rock of the belt.

Dave and his men proceeded slowly, carefully looking around for both signs of Kurt and possible monsters looming in the fog. The air was so cold they could see their breath. Ten minutes after their landing, one of the men was already calling the captain to show him footsteps on the ground. They showed hesitant steps, and the traces were compatible with Kurt's boots. Dave would be relieved to have a trail to follow already, if Kurt's footsteps weren't followed closely a few feet away by traces of something sliding on the ground. “Something is following him,” he said. “A serpent?”

One of the men shook his head. “Not so big, Cap'n.”

Dave didn't want to know what was that crawled and was bigger than a serpent. He just hoped not to meet it. They were lucky for another hour. Kurt had left very clear footsteps, especially around the lime pounds and dried waterfalls of the next rocks and at some point the supposed monster seemed to have lost interested in him. Then they heard the scream. It was scared and high-pitched, followed right after by the ugliest, scariest growl Dave had ever heard.

The three men stopped and looked around. For a moment, everything looked still and silent again and then the fog broke. It was literally tore apart like a paper curtain and a worm-like monster the size of a little ship landed on their rock, making it tremble and shake like an earthquake, and taking away with it one of Dave's men. The poor lad had just the time to scream before disappearing in the round teethed mouth of the worm. Dave drew his sword but the monster was gone and as the fog closed again there was no way to tell where.

Dave helped the other man up and they stood back to back, looking around for the creature. “What was it?” The captain asked.

“An Earthworm, Cap'n,” the man said. “I thought thar weren't anymore.”

“Good, I thought they didn't exist at all,” Dave said, his eyes darting from right to left at the smallest sound. “What do they do?”

“They eat.”

“Perfect,” Dave sighed at his always exhaustive crew. He knew he had to find Kurt as soon as possible but they couldn't move in a random direction if that worm was still around, so he did the only thing he could do even if it wasn't the smartest of all. “Hummel!” He screamed. “Where the fuck are you?”

“I don't think that be a great idea, Cap'n.”

“I don't have any others.” Dave raised his voice more. “Hummel, shout out if you're there. You're not going home. It's me or a giant worm ready to eat your guts, and I suggest you to choose me.”

The earthworm growled again, therefore Kurt screamed again too somewhere ahead of them. “It was comin' from thar,” the man said.

“Hummel!” Dave shouted out as he advanced in the general direction of the growling. “For Gods' sake open that mouth and tell me where the fuck you are! What's wrong with you land people, thinking that we're worse than giant people-eating monsters! Hummel!”

“I'm here!” Came Kurt's frustrated and annoyed voice. “You're being very inappropriate even during a rescue mission, Captain Karofsky. I swear to the Gods you are the most repellent man I had the misfortune of being introduced to. Besides you...”

The rest was lost because Dave simply stopped listening, having no need to know what he was actually saying as long as he kept making sound he could follow. He and his man moved quickly toward the neverending noise of Kurt's complaining and they found him on the next rock, busy walking his way through a bush of what looked like raspberry, only of a very richer shade of purple. Kurt's shirt had got entangled in a sprig and he was pulling hard to get free. “This stupid bush of whatever plant this is! I bet you are even poisonous. Everything here is evil and sick or has teeth and growls!” He was mumbling non-stop. “And that poor excuse for a captain who first asks where I am and then doesn't bother to come and get me!”

“I'm here, you prat,” Dave growled unceremoniously, coming out of the fog from the other rock. “Do you think it's easy to move around here with that monster lying in ambush for us?”

“You don't need to tell me how it is around here, Captain Karofsky. I've been on these stupid rocks for hours now.”

“That's because you're stupid,” Dave replied, grabbing him by his arm. “Now come, we need to get back on the ship.”

“Wait! Don't you see I'm stuck?” Kurt said, pointing at the little bush that held him captive. “Help me free myself, please.”

Dave looked at the bush, looked at Kurt's neat white shirt and then pulled him a little stronger. The fabric tore. “Here you go. Now move, or I swear I'll kick your ass until you do.”

“You wouldn't dare!” Kurt said, outraged.

Dave gave him his best smirk. “Wanna bet, m'lord?”

Kurt huffed and glared at him, but he said nothing and moved.

The journey back was smoother than Dave was expecting, which obviously kept him in alarm. That worms had to be still around because the air was still cold and he didn't know how, but he was sure that was the worm's doing. Kurt had stopped complaining and he was now very busy pouting as he walked between the Captain and the man bringing up the rear. Dave had decided to move counter-clockwise and walk all the belt of rocks down to the first one, instead of just going back the way they had come from, fearing that the worm could be waiting for them there.

He was wrong. Or at least, he was only partially right because there really was a worm constantly moving around the first rock, awaiting for them. But there were other two of those things, crawling about and ready to strike. They attacked them suddenly, while the trio was jumping from a rock to the next one, Kurt being generally unbearable and unable to do anything in the world.

The worm was slightly bigger than the first one, that was how Dave knew they where two. He grabbed Kurt and pushed him away when the beast came out of nowhere, jaws open and ready to close around the alchemist's son. Kurt screamed as he hit the ground, while Dave crouched and pushed his sword up, hoping to cut through the worm's skin. He just scraped him but it was enough to scary him off for a little while. “We need to move,” Dave said as he offered Kurt a hand and pulled him up quickly.

Kurt was so shocked he didn't even think about dusting off his pants. “It almost ate me,” he kept repeating. 

Dave didn't even listen to him. He just pulled him closer, not letting go of his hand. His man was looking around, sword in hand, listening closely to every little sound. “We're never going back, aren't we? We're gonna die here on this stupid rock!”

Dave covered his mouth with one hand, as he followed the shadows of the two worms now swimming together in the air, tails swinging and jaws making an ominous clicking sound every time their mouths opened and closed nervously. They knew their preys knew about their presence, there was no need to hide anymore. When Dave saw both the giant heads turn behind the fog, he knew they had no time to think about a more reasonable course of action. “Run!” He shouted, pulling Kurt with him. 

He ran as fast as he could, feeling the hot breath of the beasts on the back of his neck, while the ground trembled under their weight. They passed three rocks before a third worm arrived, cutting across their path and forcing them to dive sideways. He hugged Kurt before they both hit a puddle of mud. He heard the shrieking scream of the man and knew they were alone now. When he looked up, the beasts were feasting on him and as horrible as it was, they needed to take advantage of it. “Kurt, now I need you to stand up and run faster than you did before,” he whispered. Kurt was already shaking his head, his eyes shut. “Listen, we don't have much time. They're gonna... be done with him soon and it's gonna be our turn. C'mon.”

Dave lifted him up and then grabbed his face with his free hand. “Kurt, look at me,” he said, sternly. Somehow Kurt felt compelled to open his eyes at the way Dave's voice sounded. “The Fury is not too far away. If we start running and never stop, we're gonna make it. Do you understand me?”

Kurt nodded but he was panicking.

“But you have to run,” Dave said, trying to be as calm as possible. “Run and never look back. I will hold your hand all the way. Are you ready?” Kurt shook his head, but Dave took it as a yes anyway. “Good. We're moving. Now!”

He stood up and started running, jerking Kurt's arm to make him move. Kurt just started running without even noticing, too scared to really think about anything. One of the worms saw movement and went instantly after them. Kurt and Dave felt the ground trembling and the wind raising up as the creature crawled faster and faster behind them, almost reaching them but never quite managing.

“He is going to catch us!” Kurt screamed, tripping.

Dave kept him from falling down. “Shut up and keep running,” he ordered. When he finally saw his ship, he was instantly relieved, even though the worm was closer and closer. At the first sign of anyone noticing him, he started shouting orders. “Keep her ready! Weapons engaged! Fleet moving in two!”

That was an impossible order because the fleet would not be able to go anywhere in such a short time, but as soon as his crew and the crew of every other ship was going to see the worm, nobody would question the captain's need to do the impossible. The deck came alive with men shouting at each other and moving from one side of the ship to the other, throwing ropes and preparing The Fury to move. The rest of the fleet, a few feet away in the fog, was doing the same.

Dave literally threw Kurt on board as soon as they reached the ship. He landed on his feet, but this time he tripped for real and it was only thanks to Brittany who grabbed him by his shirt that he didn't fall flat on his face. Dave landed on deck right after and he started shouting right away. “Fire!”

The Fury was armed with more than eighty cannons. Half them started firing toward the giant earthworms that were exiting the fog one after the other, giving the rest of the fleet time to manoeuvring and fire as well. The beasts moved quickly, taking advantage of the alchemical energies in the air as if they were currents, exactly like the rocks did. They swam swiftly among the ships, avoiding the gunshots and occasionally trying to chow the masts. One of the ships was already missing half the deck and was struggling to keep itself in the air. “Bring those things down!” Dave shouted, following with his eyes the worms that seemed to mock him by flying right over the Fury. He looked away from them only to push Kurt into Brittany's arms. “Lock him in my cabin and tie him. Make sure he can't run away again.”

In that moment, one of the farthest ships fired and hit the smallest worms right in the head. The thing started swirling in the air, as if he had lost control over its own body. Part of his head was gone and he let out an ominous, shrieking sound that forced everyone to cover their ears. It looked like a victory but they realized it wasn't when the worm died in mid-air and came crashing down on two of the ships, while the other two worms attacked strongly in revenge. The chain-reaction was devastating, the more the beasts came at the ships, the more desperate the sailors became, and despite their attempts to avoid firing when the beasts were over the fleet, when they finally got both of them, the worms managed to take other five vessels with them. 

For minutes after the last screams had faded, the fleet stood still and quiet, the moans of the wounded the only sound in that horrible, creepy place. Dave was unable to take away his eyes from the hole in the formation, where those seven ships had been. In the air, planks, bits and pieces still remained but they were destined to fall as soon as the energy absorbed by the wood during the years would wear off without a stone feeding it new energy. Seven ships lost, and definitely way more men.

Dave took off his hat and held it to his heart as he paid respect to the lost companions. Everyone on the Fury and on every other ship did the same. He made it quick, though, because he wanted to leave that place as soon as possible and be in Titan by the end of the day. Funerals and rituals could wait until they got there.

He put his hat back on and started to turn to give orders when he heard it. At first it was just a hiss, a vague and distant sound, coming from beneath their feet. Then it became stronger, and it turned into an heartbreaking whine, like the cry of a whale. By the time the giant jaws of the biggest worm they had ever seen came out of the fog with too many teeth to count, the sound was an unbearable shriek, so high-pitched that the shockwave pushed everybody to the ground with their hands on bleeding ears and made the ships roll like they did during storms.

Dave managed to look up to see that this new earthworm was thrice as bigger as the three they had just killed, and it was way angrier. “It's the mother!” He shouted. “Everybody down!”

The creature flew over the Fury, breaking one of the masts and landed on the next ship, breaking it in half. Dave run to the helm and started manoeuvring his ship away from the best. “Keep firing at it!” He shouted again as his men aimed at the worm and waited for the right moment to do the less amount of damage to everybody else. “Surround it! Aim at the mouth!”

The order was shouted from ship to ship and vessels started turning around to form a circle around the gigantic beast above their head. Every time it moved it broke something, but they couldn't escape, for it was way faster than them, so their only hope was to bring it down before it brought them down first. Every single gunshot was aimed at its mouth, and every time they fired they inevitably suffered the beast revenge but it was somehow trapped because it would not escape, leaving them alive and so it stayed, taking its chances as they were taking theirs. Dave really hoped they were going to win this battle of will because he had no idea what else to do.

When the next ship sunk, Dave started to think it hadn't been a good idea. He manoeuvred the Fury to cover the spot and ordered his men to fire twice as fast. The beast was angry, bleeding and blind with pain but it kept moving, flying swiftly above them. They were hitting it more and more, but Dave wasn't sure they were gonna made it. The second of the ships left followed the first one. Santana, usually cold-blooded was alarmed. “It's gonna get us!” She shouted, glowing reddish from Brittany's wrist.

“Keep firing!” Dave clenched his teeth and turned the ship, closing in on the beast as the only other ship left did the same on the other side. They hit the worm right in its left eye, the cannonball came out from the other side, spraying blood all over the Fury's deck. The beast screeched and for the longest two minutes of their life it tossed and twirled and curled in mid-air. 

“Move! Move the fucking ship now!” Dave shouted as he and the helmsman together were trying to get the Fury out of the beast's landing area. The Fury creaked and moaned, complaining loudly of being misused in such a way but eventually she moved, bringing her crew to safety right before the worm came down, dead.

Dave heard the crack loud and clear, but it was too late for them to do anything. During the operation, the other ship's helm had broke. They were stuck. Some of the men tried to get off the ship and on longboats, but they were too slow. Dave saw the beast coming down right in front of his eyes, and after it had passed by, the ship was gone too.

Brittany looked at everything in horror and hugged her own arm as she would have hugged Santana.

Dave put aside the urge to cry for all they had lost that day, he started to shout to cover the pain in his voice and one by one he moved his men, so they could go back home before it was too late.


	3. Chapter 3

As Jesse had discovered by spending time with her as they worked together trying to decode those pirate charts, Rachel was a tough nut to crack. He had thought she’d be an easy target, all considered. She didn’t give the impression of being an easy girl, of course, women in the army never did, and Jesse had known quite a few of them in his life, but they all had something in common: they mostly knew nothing about men and the way they could work their charms to get inside their pants. A funny thing, considered they lived their whole life surrounded by men.

The main reason of army women’s inexperience was that relationships between colleagues were firmly forbidden by the code of the army, a code everybody made fun of because of its strictness and general antiquity, but that everybody followed nonetheless. As old and sometimes unreasonable some rules might have been, breaking them was punished with banishment from the army, which was something nobody really aspired to.

As a result of that, girls who wanted to join the army were educated following those rules, which usually made them quite not inclined to have thoughts of their own, to speak up their own mind and, especially, to make potentially dangerous experiences, which ultimately made them easy preys for men like Jesse, used to work with people’s insecurities, playing with their natural curiosity for the unknown, a feeling the heads of the army thought they could erase from soldiers’ minds by training them, but that usually stuck with them, sleeping buried inside the deep of their souls until the right prince charming came to wake it up.

During his long years as a professional hireling, Jesse had managed to twist a lot of young soldiers’ minds, tricking them into helping him with his missions without them even knowing, and he had convinced young lady soldiers into sleeping with him without even expecting him to see them ever again a thousand times, but Rachel seemed to be casted in a whole different kind of mould. 

Over the days they spent working together, Jesse had tried to interest her in himself in every way he could possibly think of. He had played the mysterious guy act, the “everybody thinks I’m the bad guy but I’ve got a good heart” act, even the “alright, I lied, did I tell you that I was a good guy, after all? No way, I’m dangerous, baby, and you know you want me” act, but nothing seemed to work with her. She’d laugh him off, apparently genuinely amused by his behaviour, at best. She’d politely ask him to stop playing around and just get back to work, turning into some inscrutable ice queen until he eventually gave up, at worst.

This, of course, hadn’t made him put his desires aside at all. If anything, Rachel’s behaviour was only making him even more eager to put his hands on her. She was like a challenge, an unsolvable puzzle, and Jesse loved to play. Especially because, when she was feeling playful too, the whole situation got twice as fun.

“Hey,” he said with a smile, lifting his eyes from the notes and the sketches he had took to help Rachel drawing a new, understandable map starting from the encrypted marine charts, “Listen, I’ve got a question I didn’t already ask you.”

“Really?” Rachel struggled to suppress a tiny laughter, casting him an amused glance and then instantly getting back to work, “I doubt it’s possible.”

“I swear!” Jesse insisted, enthusiastically, “Wanna hear?”

“Will you refrain from asking, if I say I don’t?” she asked, a light smile curling the corners of her mouth.

“No, I don’t think I will,” Jesse answered honestly, shaking his head.

Rachel sighed, but it wasn’t an unpleased sigh; more like the surrendering sigh of a big sister who knew her little brother well enough to know he wouldn’t stop until he had her complete attention. Sometimes Jesse didn’t know if he had to feel encouraged or condemned by her attitude. “Fine, then,” she said with a gentle smile, turning towards him, “Go ahead.”

Jesse smiled too, sitting on the table, careful not to destroy Rachel’s job by moving clumsily. “You’re different from any other girl I ever knew,” he started off, looking straight into the girl’s eyes, “There must be a reason. So, that’s my question. What’s about you, Sergeant Rachel Berry? What’s your story?”

Rachel’s expression changed suddenly. Her sweet smile faded away, her lips now parted in a surprised mask, her eyes wide open, shining of an uncertain light. For the first time since he got to know her, Jesse seemed to have broken something in the wall Rachel used to politely hide behind. She looked troubled, not really nervous, but certainly taken aback and quite surprised with him. Jesse struggled not to smile wider: it was like peeking into a secret garden after removing a couple of bricks from the wall that took it secluded from unwanted eyes. It was exciting like an adventure. Getting to know Rachel was the best adventure he had ever lived up to that moment, and that sounded cheesy enough to make him want to off himself by jumping out of the running train, but he was too caught up in her to bother about it.

“Why... Why should I have one?” she asked back, looking away and going back to work on the chart she was drawing, adding details every now and then just to give herself something to do and a reason not to look at him, “For what you know about me, I could be just another soldier. I’m no different than anybody else.”

“You are,” he insisted, his smile still calm and relaxed, just like his voice, “You’re completely different. Believe me, I know,” he added in an amused chuckle, “Just the fact that you’re able to handle me and keep me at distance means that you are!”

She conceded herself a faint smile, lazily writing down coordinates on a notebook, trying to guess the best route to take between the rocks she had drawn on the new chart. “I know how to deal with men, yes,” she admitted in a light sigh, never raising her gaze on Jesse, “I... used to be engaged.”

“Oh, did you?” Jesse asked, gaining courage by the fact that she talked about it like it was in the past. If she had wanted to keep keeping him at distance, she would have just used this mysterious former fiancée to shut him off, but she chose not to. That was a start, at least. “Who was he?”

Rachel shrugged uneasily, refusing to look at him in his eyes. “A guy I knew,” she answered elusively, “You don’t need to know the name, I don’t trust you,” she then added with a chuckle, trying to light up the mood of the whole conversation.

Jesse followed her lead, bringing a hand over his own chest and looking at her with a playfully disconcerted grimace, seeming unbelievably outraged. “Dear lady, you insult me!” he said, “I’d never harm a fly, if I wasn’t extremely well-paid for it.” Rachel let out an amused little laughter, and Jesse felt his own heart beat a little faster at the sound. “So, how did it end?”

Rachel sighed once more, relaxing against the back of her chair. “I always was his second choice,” she answered, shrugging like she didn’t even care anymore, “He was already engaged with another girl, when I met him. A real lady, you know, from the Capital. Then, he left her for me, but I didn’t even have the time to understand the reason for his choice, since a couple of months later his previous fiancée asked him to meet again. And, when they met, it was him, her and her little baby bump.”

“Oh,” Jesse spat out, half-surprised and half-embarrassed to have asked a question that had led them to talk about such an unpleasant memory. “I’m… I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” she smiled, looking back at him, “It’s in the past. I’m not even hurt anymore, and you know why? Because,” she added with a laughter, “The child wasn’t even his. And I figured that if he was alright to forever be with a woman who had had herself impregnated by another man while they were still engaged, he must have loved her deeply. Way more than he loved me, at least.”

Jesse looked down at her, frowning lightly at the mere thought of a man that could find himself holding in his hands the precious gem that Rachel Berry was, and still decide to give her up in favour of a common aristocratic whore. “Quite a stupid man, if I may,” he said, lifting his hand to brush lightly the soft, caramel-coloured skin of Rachel’s cheek.

She looked away, blushing lightly. “You may,” she said, her voice sweet as sugared milk, “But we’re wasting time, St. James,” she added with a laughter, pushing his hand away – though, for the first time, looking like she would have loved to feel his fingers on her skin some more. “Commander Anderson will kill us if we don’t finish the job as soon as possible.”

Jesse sighed, rolling his eyes and jumping off the table to turn around and look at the chart. “But it’s already been finished,” he said, studying the chart with real attention, “For what we need to chase down that pirate ship, this is even too much detailed. You did a pretty good job, Sergeant Berry, you know?”

She grinned, her hands on her hips and her head a little tilted as she looked at him from under her long, curved eyelashes. “A pretty good job?” she asked, “Sir, I did the best that could possibly be done.”

*

Blaine had been so pleased with their result that he had driven the Warbler twice as fast as he should have, which led them to the Capital in just a little more than a day and a half, which must have been a record of some sort. The commander didn’t really love that city, he preferred the quiet, relaxing environment of the countryside in the Midlands – which was definitely why he was planning on leaving the army, after his wedding with Kurt, to transfer there and maybe build a farm or something. That obviously if he ultimately could manage to save his fiancée from the pirates before they killed him, or worse. The Gods only knew what those criminal could have done if they managed to get how to make Hummel’s device work.

The Capital was the biggest and richest city in the Iron Lands, not to mention the most densely populated of the whole northern region of the country. Literally millions of people lived and worked in its huge, tall and elegantly decorated iron buildings. Urban people seemed to be incredibly pleased with the city’s frenetic lifestyle, but for Blaine every single minute spent in that place was a wasted one.

Especially if he still had Kurt to save.

Luckily, the Queen seemed to be waiting eagerly for their arrival. She had been warned about their loss during the trip, and when she entered the parlour, after having Blaine and Jesse wait for her for about twenty minutes, she was already frowning, her lips sealed in a disappointed expression.

“What the _hell_ have you done, commander?” she yelled, walking towards him in big, threateningly fast steps, as she pulled the skirt of her elegant gown up just enough not to trip over the hem brushing against the floor.

“Your majesty,” Blaine walked towards her too, kneeling at her feet when she stopped right in the middle of the room and holding her right hand in his to kiss her ring, “I’m incredibly sorry. I will bear the guilt for what happened on the Warbler, for mine was the idea of keeping Kurt in a wagon, guarded by two soldiers alone. It’s all my fault.”

“You bet it is,” she answered sternly, retrieving her hand and then looking up at Jesse, who bowed just a little, his usual self-satisfied grin curling his lips upwards. “I see that you at least had the decency to follow my orders and take contact with mister St. James, here. Has he retrieved the pirates’ charts as I asked him to do?”

“Yes, he…” Blaine started off, turning towards Jesse and then opening his eyes wide in shock and horror when he saw him still standing, “What are you even doing, St. James?! Kneel in front of your queen!”

“Let him do whatever he wants, commander Anderson,” Queen Sue commanded, turning around and walking away from him to reach the iron throne and sit, “I’m not interested in his respect. Only in his job. Answer my question, now. And stand up, for the Gods’ sake, you’re not tall enough to kneel and still be considered credible.”

Blaine was a faithful subject and a proud member of the Steam Army, the special unit of the imperial army that worked on battletrains and that was one of the things the Queen had decided about on her own without even listening to the suggestions of her war council, but every time Blaine had to come to the Capital and speak to her, she managed to remind him why he preferred not to. She could be most unpleasant, at times.

“Yes, your majesty,” he said in a muffled growl, “I’m sorry, I overstepped. St. James retrieved the marine charts, yes, and he’ll promptly give you the originals and the new one our cartographer has drawn after decoding them. They were encrypted.”

“Of course they were,” she spat out, unimpressed, “Obviously pirates encrypt their charts.”

Jesse struggled to suppress a chuckle, but he ultimately managed when Blaine casted him a glance filled with rage.

“Now,” Queen Sue said, crossing her arms over her chest, “About the stone.”

“It’s been stolen, your majesty,” Blaine admitted, looking down at the floor, “Together with my fiancée, Burt Hummel’s son, who was carrying it through the trip.”

“Of course you didn’t think about locking it away in a safe, did you?” Queen Sue asked, looking down at him, sounding both disappointed and incredibly mocking of his clear stupidity.

“No, your majesty,” Blaine hissed, clutching his shaking fists, “I thought that a vault could have been easily unlocked by somebody who just knew how. I thought that keeping the stone on a living person and then guarding that person would have kept it safer.”

“Well, you were wrong!” she answered, raising her voice as she hit the armrest of the throne with her closed fist, “And now, because of your reckless behaviour, that stone’s in the pirates’ hands! And the Gods only know how they could use it, especially if it really works as Hummel said!”

Blaine kneeled again, overwhelmed. “I’m sorry, your majesty. I don’t know how to atone for my mistakes.”

“Well, I do,” the Queen said, nervously standing up and walking towards one of the huge windows covering the walls all around the room. “You’ll take one of the pirates’ ship we collected during the last battle,” she ordered as she drew open the heavy curtain that covered the glass to peek at the street outside, “Choose the one in the best conditions, take a copy of the charts and follow the way up to the Floating Lands. Retrieve that stone, and your fiancée, if you manage. That’s all,” she finished, turning to look at him with fiery eyes, “You’re dismissed.”

“As you command, your majesty,” Blaine nodded, standing up and bowing once more, “Is St. James coming with us?”

“Yes, he is,” Queen Sue nodded, “Nobody who’s not a pirate knows the Floating Lands as well as he does, if he lives up to his fame. He’ll be useful.”

“That, my beloved Queen,” Jesse interrupted her with a sly grin, “If the offer is good, of course.”

“Don’t you dare, St. James,” the Queen almost growled at him, sitting back on her throne, “You covered yourself in crimes for which I could easily have your head cut off. Don’t push me. Now,” she turned to Blaine, “Commander Anderson, go. Mister St. James will soon follow, once he showed me the charts.”

Blaine nodded once more and then quickly left the room, without ever looking back, still too bothered by how humiliating that conversation had been. Once alone with the Queen, Jesse moved closer, playfully saluting her with another little bow.

“Your majesty,” he said in a mocking voice, as he retrieved the decoded charts and handed them down to her.

“I was serious, St. James,” she said, almost tearing the charts away from his hands to examine them, “Don’t push me. And don’t you ever think that the fact that I hired you gives you any kind of special permission to act familiarly with me. I’m still your Queen.”

“Of course you are,” Jesse nodded and bowed once more, still smiling, but less cockily.

“I understand that kidnapping the young Hummel with his stone was your idea?” the Queen asked, carefully studying the map.

“Not entirely, your majesty,” he said with another grin, “I didn’t do it on my own account – or yours, for that matter. David Karofsky, captain of the Fury, paid me to do it. He was sure the man travelling with the stone was Hummel Senior. He seemed to have unfinished matters with him.”

“Whatever,” the Queen answered, folding the map, “What’s important is that now the stone is not on his way here anymore. That will give us time. This war,” she said, looking up at Jesse, “Can’t be over. This whole country lives on war. It costs some lives, true, but the amount of money that are daily made by selling arms to the armies is what really keeps its economy alive. So for my reign, and for myself, of course, we have to keep this war going.”

“Sure,” Jesse scoffed a laughter. “Isn’t it enough that now the pirates have the stone?”

“No,” Queen Sue answered, looking sternly at him, “It is not. That stone must be destroyed. Can’t you understand? If it really can provide iron starting from common dirt, soon the war for the Midlands won’t have reason to go on anymore. That’s why you have to go with Anderson and his crew. You’ll make sure that the stone gets destroyed or lost in the ocean,” she grinned, “And that they all die.”

Jesse suddenly petrified, looking right at her. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me perfectly well, St. James,” the Queen said, standing up from her throne again, “Nothing’s better than martyrdom to inflame spirits. I’m told more and more people all over the country are starting to question the necessity of the war, especially in the Midlands. Once they hear the news of all those poor soldiers on a mission, brutally killed by the pirates with no mercy whatsoever, they’ll change their minds. Everybody loves Anderson, he’s a war hero, he’s the symbol of the whole Steam Army. The chronicle of his death will travel the whole country in no time.”

“Your majesty,” Jesse swallowed hard, struggling to keep his voice straight, “Is that really necessary? It’ll be a massacre. I’m not sure—”

“I don’t care what you are or aren’t sure of, St. James,” the Queen interrupted, suddenly turning to look at him, outraged by his opposition, “Are you part of my council? Do I pay you to give me advice on how I should rule this reign, or conduct this war?”

Jesse lowered his eyes, shaking his head. “No, your majesty.”

“Exactly,” she nodded, “Then follow your orders, and earn your reward. Don’t disappoint me, St. James. Did you understand?”

Jesse nodded slowly, and then bowed lightly. “Yes, your majesty.”

“Good,” the Queen nodded too, “Now, go. And come back with good news.”

Jesse bowed once more, and then left the room, heading straight down the corridor and to the hangar he knew the pirate ships were kept in. He walked slowly, not exactly eager to see commander Anderson again, especially now that he knew he was going to die on a suicide mission he wasn’t even aware of, and he was surprised when, as he was about to leave the royal palace, he lifted his gaze and met Rachel’s dark eyes, looking at him.

“Rachel,” he whispered, slowing down and stopping right in front of her, “What are you doing here?”

“Commander Anderson sent me to call you,” she smiled sweetly, combing her hair behind her ear, “The ship’s almost ready, we’re going to take off in half an hour.”

“Yes… sure,” he looked away, moistening his lips. Rachel was what made that whole thing even harder to stand. He couldn’t leave her to die, he just couldn’t. He had to decide what to do.

“Is everything alright?” Rachel asked, searching for his eyes and touching his hand with her fingertips to catch his attention, “You look troubled.”

He forced a smile upon his lips, shaking his head. “Everything’s fine, don’t worry,” he reassured her, “Lead the way.”

Rachel frowned lightly, looking at him for a couple of seconds. She wasn’t buying it, it was obvious. Jesse smiled more sweetly, and she decided to let it go. “Fine,” she said, “This way.”

He needed to decide what to do, but he still had some time before it was too late, and he had all the intentions to use it all up to the last minute.

*

When Kurt was finally brought back on the deck – handcuffed and dragged by two pirates that had spent the whole time deathglaring at him so mercilessly he hadn’t even tried to protest about the rude way they were handling him – at first he didn’t even get why he had been brought there.

He stood silently beside captain Karofsky, wondering about what could the captain possibly want him to be there for. He knew the man must be angry at him, and quite frankly he could easily understand why. It was his fault, after all, if all those men had died, eaten by those horrible creatures on the floating rocks or because of the damages those same creatures made while falling on the ships once they were dead. Of course, none of that would have happened if captain Karofsky would have at least treated him with some respect, or even better, if he didn’t kidnap him at all, but it was Kurt’s choice to run away, and his was the fault of what had happened out there, and he was ready to take responsibility for his mistakes.

“Captain,” he started off, talking in a whisper, but Karofsky stopped him right away, turning to look at him with cold, stern eyes.

“Be quiet,” he said, turning away from him to go back at watching right in front of himself, in the mist that was starting to fade away the more the ship got closer to one of the biggest rocks Kurt had seen so far. It was so big he couldn’t even tell how much, its outlines disappeared into the fog right and left, there was no way to tell how wide it was. “You have no permission to talk,” captain Karofsky kept going, his voice deep and dark and somehow scolding, “I’m not even interested in what you can tell me about that stone anymore. I don’t even know why I’m keeping you alive.”

Kurt froze on the spot, terrified. He looked down, tightening his lips to stop them from shaking in fear. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry,” he said in a voice so low he wasn’t even sure if the captain had heard him at all.

After a couple of minutes, the mist started to fade away more quickly than it had done up to that moment, and Kurt was finally able to see.

What he saw didn’t look like anything he had seen before, nor in his books or in real life.

Titan clearly was not only the biggest rock in the Floating Lands, but also the richest as far as flora and fauna were concerned. It vaguely resembled the way certain small seaside cities on the East Coast of the continent looked like, there was an incredible amount of harbours and small ports, and the actual city where people lived in seemed to be right in the immediate vicinity of them, as if life in such a place was unthinkable if not lived as a whole with the ships.

The houses were small and looked humble, maybe even poor at a first look, though the way they were kept showed that it really wasn’t like that. It looked like people there didn’t want to put useless efforts in nothing that they didn’t absolutely need. They didn’t need the huge, elegant buildings of the Capital and all the other important cities of the Iron Lands. They were more like the people living in the Midlands, in the countryside. They just needed a roof over their heads, a table to sit around with their family and a garden for their fruits and vegetables to grow peacefully. 

The houses weren’t tall at all, most of them just had one floor, some of the biggest up to two. They were built in wood and stone, and none of them had fences, not even around the gardens, which were an explosion of colours and different, delicious smells that could be sniffled already from the ship, even before it arrived safely in the main harbour. Or maybe the smells couldn’t really be felt from such a distance, and Kurt was just imagining them, because he was starving.

“Now don’t make a sound,” captain Karofsky told him, tying a rope to the chain joining his handcuffs and tugging at it to lead him off the Fury, once it had landed, “Follow me.”

Kurt nodded, following his orders without spelling a single word. 

“Captain!” a man called out, running towards them. He was dressed in tight black leather pants, high boots and a loose white shirt opened on his broad chest, and he had the weirdest hair Kurt had ever seen, his head being completely shaved off, except for the crest that stood tall right in the middle of his scalp. He was closely followed by an overweight woman wearing a purple frilly shirt, black pants and high heeled boots. Both shared the same concern in their eyes. “We were starting to worry,” the man said, “You were taking too much time.”

The woman nodded, standing right beside the man. “We were about to send a ship to meet you halfway,” she said, and then stood on her tiptoes, trying to look past Karofsky’s broad shoulders, “…where are the others?” she asked with an uncertain voice, which broke into a surprised sob when she laid eyes on the captain’s hurt expression.

“We’re the only survivors,” Karofsky answered, nodding towards the wounded, tired men that were jumping off the ship to get treated and catch some rest, “Earthworms. We lost every ship we had except for the Fury. It was a tragedy.”

Both the woman and the man stood there, frozen by the news, for more time than Kurt could count. The man’s eyes filled with tears, and the woman was clearly struggling not to fall apart on her own. Kurt heard her voice break when she called the man’s name, as she patted his shoulder with a shaking hand, trying to comfort him. “Are you sure,” she tried, breathing heavily, “Are you sure no one survived?”

Captain Karofsky looked away, slowly shaking his head. “We had to get out of there, we couldn’t risk something worse staying. I’ll send a couple of ships to search the belt for survivors, later.”

“We’re going,” the man instantly said, wiping the tears away from his eyes, “Now.”

“Puckerman…” Karofsky started off, throwing an annoyed look at the sky.

“Captain, no,” the man insisted, shaking his head, “We’re fine, our ships are alright, we’re going. If you intend to stop us, I swear, I’m gonna mutiny.”

Karofsky looked at him sternly for a couple of moments, before turning his eyes towards the woman. “Lauren?” he said, as if to ask for her opinion.

She stood tall beside the man. “I’m with Puckerman,” she said.

Karofsky sighed in surrender. “Fine,” he conceded, finally, “Go. Take your two ships and another one for backup. If you lose a single man, Puck, you and your woman are going to be held responsible. We can’t afford to lose anybody else.”

Both Puckerman and Lauren nodded, without saying even a single word before running to the harbour, shouting orders at their sailors to get the ships ready for the rescue mission.

Karofsky sighed deeply and brushed his face with his hand, before tugging at the rope to tell Kurt it was time to move again. Kurt followed him for a couple of yards, before he could find the courage to speak again. “Who were those people?” he asked in a low voice.

“Two other captains of my fleet,” Karofsky answered coldly, probably to cut the conversation before it could even begin.

“Have they…” Kurt insisted, swallowing hard, “Have they lost somebody in the accident?”

“Listen, first of all, it wasn’t a fuckin’ accident,” the captain said, turning to look at him with eyes filled with rage and the deepest sadness Kurt had ever seen, “It was _your_ fault. _You_ ran away and I lost more than half my men to fuckin’ try and save _your_ sorry ass. I see no accident in this, I just see a stubborn, spoiled brat who led dozens of valiant men to a useless, painful and horrible death. Secondly,” he added, now turning away, unable to look at him anymore as pain filled him up inside to the point he couldn’t even feel enraged anymore, “We all lost somebody there. No, you self-centered, whimsical child, Puck and Lauren didn’t lose a relative or a lover there, and neither did I, but we all lost our mates, our brothers, and the pain we feel is just the same as the pain wives and husbands are feeling. Does this answer your question?”

Kurt stood petrified on the spot, eyes stubbornly locked to the ground, quickly filling with tears. “I’m… incredibly sorry,” he said, his voice broken by sobs. 

Karofsky didn’t look at him with any more compassion, after his second apology. He tugged at the rope again, leading him to one of the biggest houses on the main road that, from the harbour, led to what seemed like the main square of that city, a big, circular space with a well in the middle.

The house was a two floor building with thick walls made of stone bricks. They hadn’t been cut regularly, so the walls were quite irregular and bulgy to the eyes, giving the whole building a rustic touch, which was even more clear inside the house.

That was nothing Kurt was expecting. “Where are you taking me…?” he asked in a surprised whisper, looking around the sitting room he found himself in once Dave opened the door and led him inside. 

It was a large room, the floor was covered in wood and soft, apparently rich carpets. The wallpaper was of a very light shade of beige, decorated with incredibly small flowers, invisible to the eye if you didn’t take a really close look.

The furniture was made in the same kind of wood that covered the floor. It was poor, just a rounded table with five small chairs, a counter, a library against the wall, close to one of the windows but protected from the sun, and a small couch covered in slightly worn out brown leather. Poor, of course, but well taken care of. A simple glass vase filled with fresh flowers stood on the table, and there wasn’t dust anywhere Kurt could see, not even the library. It seemed like a place loved by its owner, something else Kurt definitely wasn’t expecting.

“This is my home,” Karofsky explained, freeing him from the rope first, and from his handcuffs right after, “I’ll keep you here.”

“Here?” Kurt asked, puzzled, as he massaged his own wrists to try and alleviate the pain he felt after having them handcuffed for hours, “Why here? Don’t you have a prison?”

“No, we don’t,” Karofsky answered, locking the door and then moving to the kitchen, searching for something to eat for dinner, “We don’t take prisoners,” he added, walking back into the sitting room bringing with him some cheese and bread.

Kurt frowned, feeling the disdain he had always felt for the pirates’ barbaric costumes rise up inside his spirit, after he had almost forgotten it. “Of course you don’t,” he said harshly, taking a couple of uncertain steps away from the man and towards the wall, against which he stood rigid, hugging himself in a protective embrace, still looking at captain Karofsky with a disgusted fire in his eyes, while the man sat at the table and started slicing the bread. “You think it’s better to kill everybody on the battleground, don’t you?”

“Actually, yes,” Dave growled, turning to look at him for but a second, before going back to take care of the bread, “It’s always better than abduct people and torture them to death in a desperate attempt to make them reveal some imaginary secret about our ability to fly through the floating stones. And infinitely better than separating people consciences’ from their bodies, stocking them into prisons that already look like morgues!”

“How dare you?!” Kurt scowled, “The Steam Army doesn’t, has never and never will torture a prisoner! It’s composed by honourable, honest soldiers who—”

“Oh, cut the political crap, you ain’t got nobody to convince, in here!” Dave barked at him, hitting the table with the hilt of his knife, “I’ve been fighting this war since I was fourteen! I know what I saw, and nothing you could say will make me change my mind!”

“Sure! Of course!” Kurt screamed, his eyes now filled with tears of rage and sadness, “Because you think you’re on the right side! You think it’s right to kill hundreds of people, to plunder the Midlands, to—”

“To _plunder_ the Midlands?!” Dave repeated, outraged, standing up with such a quick movement that he made his chair fall on the floor, “You really know _nothing_ about _anything_ in the world, do you?! The Iron Lands’ army was the first to invade the Midlands to use the iron caves!”

“The Iron Lands _need_ those caves!” Kurt insisted, “We have billions of people living in cities, and iron is the principal material we use to manufacture every kind of possible item, not to mention the foundations of our buildings and vehicles!”

“And don’t you think our people could use that too, and for the very same reasons?! Haven’t you noticed how we live in here, with stone and wood houses, prone to fall apart for earthquakes and to burn for fires? Haven’t you noticed the tragedy that is to lose a single ship, because we have not enough material to build new ones quickly?!”

“You could have bought the iron from our kingdom!” Kurt pointed out, gesturing nervously in mid air, “Kings and queens of all times have proposed arrangements for that, but no, you want your iron to come for free! How is this fair?!”

“How is it fair that we should pay for something that the earth naturally offers?!” Dave answered, shocked by Kurt’s stubbornness, “How is it fair that your people can have the iron for free, digging it from the mountains, while we can’t?!”

“And of course you all think it’s better to go on a war, than to surrender and pay for something you ultimately don’t own!” Kurt insisted, frowning with irritation, “You can’t fool me, captain Karofsky. You say I know nothing about anything in the world, but I don’t think so. You can’t change the fact that the pirates were the first to refuse any kind of agreement, and start a war. Or are you going to say it wasn’t like this?”

Dave growled again, clutching his fists as if trying to keep them still. He couldn’t say no to that, it _was_ actually true that the pirates were the first to declare war. That didn’t mean they weren’t basically pushed to do so by unfair proposals and unacceptable circumstances, but the naked truth, stripped to the core, was that the first to move against the imperial army had been the pirates, and that couldn’t be changed by any reasonable excuse Dave could possibly think of.

He turned around, retrieving the chair from the floor and setting it straight. “I don’t wanna talk about it anymore,” he said, “Now come here and eat.”

“Typical,” Kurt hissed, walking towards the table and sitting on one of the chairs nonetheless.

“Don’t start again,” captain Karofsky grumbled, glaring at him, “We’re not gonna stay here for more than a week or so. We can’t put the lives of everybody who lives here at risk. I still don’t know what to do with you, but this is definitely not your place, so we’re going to take off again soon. Until then, regain strength, eat and sleep. And don’t make me regret keeping you alive.”

Kurt looked arrogantly at him and at the slice of bread and cheese he was offering. Then, with a tired sigh, he accepted the food, and started to eat.

“Listen,” he said after a while, resting his shoulders against the back of the chair and trying to relax, “This is… all very confusing, to me. I’m deeply saddened by the disaster I caused during the trip. It wasn’t my intention. I just wanted to run away. I was scared and alone and I didn’t even know what you wanted with me exactly. So I saw a way out, and I took it. But what happened after was something I will…” he sighed, trying to suppress a sob, “I will regret forever.”

Dave sighed too, passing a hand through his hair and looking away from the shaking, deeply anguished young man sitting beside him. “I know,” he said calmly, “I accept your apologies. You knew nothing about what you could find out there. You acted recklessly, though, and that can’t be forgiven.”

“I’m not asking for forgiveness, I know I don’t deserve it,” Kurt said, tears flowing down his cheeks, now that he was letting them free to, “Speaking of which… thank you.” Dave turned to look at him, raising an eyebrow in surprise. “For saving my life,” Kurt explained, forcing a little smile.

For the first time since he had met the boy, Dave looked at him with different eyes. It was true enough Kurt had acted like a fool, and spoke even worse, but what was Dave thinking, expecting something different from somebody who was clearly raised by people who worked inside or with the army? Maybe, instead of attacking him and treating him like a stupid child unable to understand the most obvious things, he could have just tried and explain him.

He looked so lost and fragile. He probably just wanted to go back to his dad and his simple, easy everyday life.

“You’re welcome,” he said, realizing that _that_ was the right thing to do. In a week or so, his men would have been ready to take off again. Then, he would have taken a small ship, a couple of sailors, and he would have took the boy home. After that, he would have found a way to make Hummel Senior tell him what he wanted to know, but until then, there was no reason to be hostile. “I’m sorry for having had you kidnapped, anyway,” he added, looking away, embarrassed, “I thought your father would have carried that thing.”

“You wanted to kidnap my _father_?!” Kurt said in horror, “But he’s old, and he recently had a stroke! God, I’m so happy I ended up kidnapped in his place,” he whispered, relieved.

Dave chuckled, shaking his head. “You’re completely crazy.”

“I just care about him,” Kurt frowned, curling his nose, “He’s the only family I’ve got left.”

“You’re lucky to still have him, at least.”

“That’s true, but, as I said, I risked to lose him too a few months ago,” Kurt repeated, “So it’s not like I take him for granted or anything. I’m not as spoiled as you think I am. I value things, just like you do.”

“Touché,” Dave raised both his hands in surrender, looking at him with a little smile, “I got it, you’re human too. I’m sorry for treating you like a child. I shouldn’t have.”

“That’s right,” Kurt nodded, and then he seemed to remember something else, “Wait a moment, what could you possibly want to do with my father?”

Dave’s eyes turned sadder, as he looked at his now bare wrist, where – Kurt remembered – he used to keep that peculiar bracelet of his, the one that talked. “You sure noticed my annoying companion, miss Santana Lopez,” he said, “And you sure noticed she hasn’t got a body anymore.”

Kurt let out a saddened whimper, closing his fists around the fabric of his trousers. “Has she…”

“Yes,” Dave sighed, “She’s been shot with one of those guns, and now her conscience is separated from her body. We have both of them, we just don’t know how to put them together. Maybe that thing you carried…”

“What, the stone?” Kurt blinked a couple of times, “No, that doesn’t work that way. It serves a completely different purpose, something to change everything into iron, I don’t really know how it works,” he shrugged, totally disinterested in that thing, “But my father knows how to put back body and soul together. He could probably help with that.”

Dave’s lips parted and curled in a relieved smile, as he leaned towards Kurt. “Really?”

“Well…” Kurt backed off a little, her cheeks turning a brighter shade of pink, “Yes, I guess so. If you could just bring me back home, I’m sure…”

“It was what I wanted to do anyway,” Dave reassured him with another smile, “Now don’t think about it anymore. I’ll let you visit the land, tomorrow. Maybe you’ll like it.”

Kurt smiled and nodded, going back to his food. Maybe he really would.


	4. Chapter 4

Jesse had hoped for a calm, relaxing flight, that could give him some time to think about his next moves, now that he knew what that mission was expected to accomplish by the Queen’s means, but unfortunately it had been clear right from the start he wasn’t going to get what he needed, which would have been mostly just silence.

Among the hundreds of things Commander Anderson appeared to know nothing about, like for example how to act without seeming to have a huge stick up his ass, there was something that had made the beginning of the flight even more annoying than it was already destined to be: he didn’t know how to sail a ship. He didn’t even know where to begin to make it take off.

Jesse should have expected him to: after all, people from the Iron Lands hardly knew how to fly. They weren’t that good with scooter either. It seemed like they only felt comfortable when they were sure their feet touched the solid ground. Jesse himself, during the first years of his freelance job, wasn’t that good at all with flying vehicles either.

If the situation had been different, Jesse would have turned into a full-time helmsman to get the ship safely to Titan. Actually, if the situation had been different, Jesse wouldn’t even be there. But the situation wasn’t, and so there he was, and since he couldn’t afford to spend the whole flight behind an helm – because he needed to concentrate on evaluating his options and choose the best one, or at least the less worse – he had to teach Blaine how to do it.

And Gods, wasn’t he a thickhead.

It had taken Jesse literally hours to just get him to understand enough to have the ship fly without constantly losing altitude or completely missing the right path, and at the end of his endless, frustrating and irritating Flight 101 he had fallen victim of the worst headache he had ever suffered, and therefore he had decided to retreat in his cabin and try to sleep it off, hoping it’d be gone by the morning after.

After a good night of sleep, the headache was gone, but the same couldn’t be said about Jesse’s dark thoughts and uncertainties. He couldn’t go on ignoring the truth anymore: he was on a pirate ship handed over to conductors and sent by the Queen into hostile territory, to try and accomplish an impossible mission that was going to lead them all to death.

It didn’t took him a lot of time, after his brief talk with queen Sue, to understand her majesty was clearly trying to get rid of him too. He knew too much. He had known of her plans and machinations right from the start, and the Queen knew better than to trust him, or his words and promises of secrecy and discretion. She knew very well he would have turned her in if that was what was better for himself, and she was perfectly right on the matter, because Jesse surely would. So she had clearly thought: why, while I send this valiant men to a torturous martyrdom, don’t I try and get rid of the most dangerous man I employ too?

And so here he was, trapped in a situation he couldn’t escape, knowing perfectly he was going to die if he didn’t try and do something about it. He was starting to regret the day he was first received at the royal palace, and the Queen offered him richness beyond measures if he accepted to try and mess up with both pirates and her own army to keep the war going as long as possible.

Again, if the situation was different he wouldn’t have thought twice about leaving that ship immediately, never turning back. But Rachel was there, on the ship, and the only thing Jesse knew better than the fact that he didn’t want to leave her, was that he didn’t want to leave her to die.

Looking out of the porthole in his cabin, Jesse let out a deep, frustrated sigh. They had been flying through floating rocks for a day and a half already, Titan must have been close, by now. He had to act as soon as possible, before it was too late.

He had to save Rachel, and himself.

He walked quickly out of his cabin and to the room Rachel had been accommodated into. When he knocked, she asked who it was, and when Jesse answered, instead of just telling him to come in, Rachel stood up from the chair – Jesse heard the screeching sound of its feet against the floor – and opened the door for him, greeting him with a big, sweet smile as she made room for him to enter.

“I was just thinking about you,” she said as she closed the door and invited him to sit on one of the chairs behind her desk.

“Now, were you?” he asked with a smirk, sitting down.

Rachel blushed furiously, sitting right next to him on the other chair. “Don’t mock me,” she said, frowning lightly at him, though the bright pink colour of her cheek was making her irritation looking not threatening at all, “I was just worried for you.”

“Really?” he asked, surprised, “Why?”

She crouched her shoulders, looking at him with clear embarrassment, the shadow of a smile still curling her lips, the taste of which Jesse still had to savour. Though having to tell her what he had to tell her, he was starting to think he’d never have the chance to kiss her, not even once. “It’s just,” she said, “You seem… troubled.”

Jesse held his breath, looking at her with his eyes wide open. Nobody had ever been able to tell how he was feeling, before. He kept his emotions buried deep inside himself, it was better for his job and he had learned to play the same trick in everyday life too, especially since his everyday life had started to merge more and more with his job, to the point he couldn’t tell one from the other anymore.

Maybe Rachel had learned how to read into him while they were spending time together. Maybe he had just started to stop hiding in front of her. Maybe a combination of both.

In any case, he didn’t feel like regretting any aspect of that special connection between them. Even if it was what had brought him there, sitting on that chair, with something incredibly hard to confess.

“What?” Rachel asked, worried by his long silence, “Did I say something wrong?”

“No,” he shook his head, swallowing and then moistening his lips as he tried to gather the courage and the right words to speak, “No, it’s just… you’re right, I am.”

Rachel leaned in to place her hand over Jesse’s, and squeezed it a bit. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Jesse sighed. “I have to,” he answered, lowering his eyes. He had never felt ashamed of something he had done, before. But after all that was the first time he actually cared for what somebody else thought about him, so it sort of made sense. “Listen, what I’ve got to tell you isn’t easy, but I’m not going to ask you to be comprehensive or merciful. Just… listen to me until I’m finished, and then take your decision freely. Alright?”

Rachel nodded without even thinking about it. “Alright.”

Jesse breathed in and out, holding her hand back. “Fine. I’m working for the Queen.” Rachel was a girl smart enough not to say stupid things like ‘well, we all are, Jesse’, and he silently thanked her for not interrupting him. “I’ve been secretly working for her right from the start. She’s not what you all think she is, Rachel.”

“And what is she?” Rachel asked, her hand never leaving Jesse’s, just like her eyes never left his.

“She’s the first, and I suppose the only, at this point, who wants this war to never stop,” Jesse answered, swallowing once again. He was about to throw out the window years of so called honourable service, but somehow it felt right. “She hired me to double-cross with both pirates and conductors, to keep them fighting each other. I offered my services to both, and pretending I was helping only one of them, and then the other, I actually served nobody else’s interests but the Queen’s.”

Rachel sat stiff on her chair, he hand still closed around Jesse’s. Her eyes were cold, but more than that, she was scared, though she knew how to deal with it, which meant that she wasn’t going to panic, at least. “So you… when you brought us the map…”

“I was coming straight from the Fury, the pirate flagship,” Jesse swallowed, “Where I had just left Hummel’s son, after I kidnapped him from here.”

Rachel remained silent for quite a while, processing what Jesse had just said. He could almost see the stream of information flowing through her eyes as she sorted through them, trying to tell what could be fake from what could be the truth. “Why are you telling me this, now?” she asked then, her voice but a whisper.

“Because I know what the Queen wants,” Jesse answered, “This is a suicide mission. We’re all going to die, if we stay on this ship and get closer to Titan.”

“Why don’t you just leave?” Rachel insisted, frowning, “Are you scared commander Anderson wouldn’t let you? He would. He despises you. He can’t wait for not having to deal with you anymore. I’ll show you where the scooters are kept, you’ll take one and—”

“I don’t wanna go!” Jesse interrupted her, horrified, “Not without you.”

“Why?” Rachel asked, suddenly looking at him with eyes reflecting a strange, brilliant light. 

Jesse bit his inner cheek, breathing slowly. “Because I’m in love with you,” he answered in a resigned sigh, “And so you’re not gonna be a second choice, for me, ever. You come first. Your life is my priority, and I don’t care if I lose everything else to save you. Please…” he almost sobbed, holding one of Rachel’s small hands between his own, “I will understand if you don’t want to see me anymore, after we’re back in the Iron Lands, but please, come with me.”

He lifted his eyes to search for hers, and Rachel didn’t look away. She didn’t speak either, though, for a long time, and when she finally spoke, her voice sounded unreal. “No,” she said, and Jesse clearly felt his heart sink down to his stomach.

“What…?” he couldn’t believe it. It just couldn’t be true. “Rachel, you have to believe me, I—”

“I do,” Rachel said, the stern line of her lips melting in a sweet half-smile, “I believe you. And, Jesse…” she looked down, her cheeks turning red as she nervously squeezed his hand, “I like you a lot. I don’t know if it’s love, yet, but I want to try and see where this feeling leads us.”

Jesse’s lips parted in an unbelieving smile, as he got a little closer to her. “Rachel…”

“Wait,” she stopped him, lifting her free hand and pressing her fingers against Jesse’s mouth to keep him quiet, “I want to be with you, but running away now is not the way to deal with what’s happening, or what you’ve done. I could never love a man on the run,” she added with a small, sad smile, “So you’ve got to come with me, and tell commander Anderson what you just told me, and then together we will find a way to make everything right, I promise.”

Jesse clenched his jaw, trying not to show the tension shaking him up from the inside. “Rachel… what I did would be enough for Anderson to put me behind bars for the rest of my life. What if he doesn’t believe what I say? He could—”

“He won’t,” Rachel reassured him, shaking her head, “Besides, if it’s true, there must be some proof.”

“There is!” a happy smile lightened up Jesse’s face, “I mean, I don’t have it with me right now, but I know how it’s held, and if Anderson needs it—”

“Oh, he will,” Rachel stopped him with a light chuckle, standing up from the chair and tugging at his hand to invite him to do the same, “Come on, now. We’ve got a war to stop.”

She sounded like she really believed they could, and Jesse could do nothing but feel the same.

*

“Not now, Rachel.”

Blaine was so concentrated in what he was doing that he didn’t even look away from what he was looking at, which seemed to be a random point on the horizon he thought he was directing straight towards. He was flying kind of sloppily, if Jesse had to comment on it, and he kept avoiding the stones floating all around him by just a couple of inches or maybe even a little less. Also, he was terribly slow. But, all considered, Jesse didn’t think it was exactly the right moment for another little lesson on the matter. Especially considering Blaine was probably going to push him overboard after he heard what Jesse had to say.

“Commander Anderson, it really is of utmost importance that you listen to us, right now,” the girl insisted trying to keep calm as her commander stubbornly decided to ignore her.

“Rachel,” he grunted, narrowing his eyes to try and see behind the mist that clouded the view, “I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m slaloming through flying rocks, trying to follow a path I don’t know, to find a place I’ve never seen. How do you expect me to accomplish that if you keep bothering me?”

Jesse sighed theatrically, placing both his hands on the helm. “May I?” he asked. Blaine frowned at him, and Jesse smiled a bit, “We really need to talk to you.”

Blaine frowned and snorted, but eventually gave up and walked away from the helm. Besides, St. James may have been a revolting individual, but he was better than him at this, and that much Blaine had to give him. “Fine,” he said, standing right next to Rachel with his arms crossed over his chest, “Since when it’s _we_ anyway?”

Rachel blushed instantly. “Now it really isn’t the time to delve into this,” she said, shaking her head, “Now, Jesse, tell commander Anderson what you just told me.”

Jesse sighed, sailing the ship twice as fast and elegantly than Blaine had done up to that moment. “I still think it’s going to be completely useless, but alright, if you want me to.” He turned around to face Blaine and spoke as coldly as he could. “Her majesty, the queen you so happily kneel before, is the batshit crazy head of an arms dealing company, and she sent us on this suicide mission because she wants the war to never end, and Hummel’s device never to be put at use, and pirates and conductors to still kill each other for no reason whatsoever beside her desperate need for money and power.”

Both Blaine and Rachel looked at him in shock, and the girl was the first to dare to speak. “Jesse… you could at least use a little bit of tact.”

“Excuse me…” Blaine started off, his voice so small and feeble to be barely audible, “What?”

“The Queen,” Jesse repeated, “She’s the one behind everything, the reason why the war has never stopped. She hired me to mess with you. I was working for you and for the pirates at the same time. I kidnapped Hummel’s son. It was meant to slow you down and to pave the way for the future mysterious disappearance of that damn stone, or whatever it is.”

“What?!” Blaine screamed again, staring at Jesse with horror and disgust, unable to process everything at the same time.

“What are you, deaf?” Jesse asked, rolling his eyes and sighing, unnerved.

“How dare you— Why should I believe you?!” Blaine screamed, approaching the helm in fast, threatening steps, “Get away from here!”

“See, Rachel? He doesn’t believe me,” Jesse shrugged, moving away from the helm and walking back to the girl’s side, holding her hand, “It’s fine for me, anyway, I’ll just take the girl and leave.”

“You’re not going anywhere!” Blaine barked at him, retrieving his gun and pointing it against Jesse’s forehead.

“No, commander!” Rachel stopped him, putting herself between the gun and Jesse, “He’s not being serious! He— You have to believe us! He says there’s proof, we at least have to try!”

“Rachel, he’s a mercenary, a criminal and a serial liar, you can’t really believe a single word he says, and if it’s true he kidnapped Kurt I swear I’m going to beat him up so hard not even his parents are going to be able to recognize him, as soon as I’m done with him!”

And he could have just gone on and on about it for hours, if it wasn’t for the horrible, crashing sound that filled the air and made the ship shake right after he had finished speaking.

“What… What the hell was that?” one of his privates said, looking around himself in fear. They could see nothing anywhere, whatever it was that had hit the ship, the mist was hiding it very well.

That, of course, until cannonballs started to rain over them.

*

Their pirate ship had been towed in and it was now anchored in one of Titan's harbours, surrounded by three vessels armed and ready to shoot. Blaine was looking at what looked like the whole population of the Floating Lands' capital crowded together ashore and demanding them to get off the ship and hand over themselves.

“We don't have much of a choice,” Jesse said, looking out through the porthole of the formerly captain's cabin and now Blaine's control centre of the ship. “Either we get off the ship or they make us.”

“Shut up, St. James. I know,” Blaine snapped. He knew there weren't the conditions to even negotiate. They had no mean of getting out of this alive, unless the pirates wanted so. Did the Queen really know that they weren't going to win over the pirate capital? “Alright, let's do this. St. James, you come with me. Rachel, you get ready with the rest of the crew.”

“Why do I have to come with you? I'm not even one of your men!”

“Oh, I know that, St. James. Believe me, I know,” Blaine said, glaring at him. “But you contributed to this mess, and you will face the consequence of it in the front line, like everyone of us. And if they shoot on sight, I hope they hit you.”

Jesse and Blaine came on deck, arms above their head. “We surrender!” Blaine shouted. “Please, don't fire.”

“We decide if we fire or not, Anderson,” Karofsky said, harshly. “Get used to the idea that you don't have a say in this and get your ass ashore. Your crew will obligingly follow. My people will do the honours.”

“Now, you don't do justice to the pirates' hospitality, Captain,” Jesse said, taking a step forward and the lead. “I know the Iron Lands people don't know that, but I know the pirates. You have a code for everything, even for guests greeting.”

“Too bad you're no guests,” Karofsky said. “Which leads us to what the fuck you're doing on that ship. Please save the crap about being held hostage for someone who really cares.”

Jesse shrugged, like being under fire was no big deal. “Mister Anderson made me a great offer and I took it. Too bad you didn't ask for an exclusive when you made yours,” he explained. “But, if you let me explain why we came here with one of your old ships and no or little clue of where we were going, I'm sure that I can make everything clear.”

“Gag him,” Karofsky said, not even changing expression. He remained totally unimpressed by Jesse's mumbling as one of his men reduced the mercenary to silence. The whole crew was being dragged ashore and Anderson was now standing in front of him, disarmed and with his hands tied up behind his back.

“This is unacceptable,” Anderson growled. “I'm a conductor of Queen Sue's Royal Army and I demand a rightful treatment.”

“This is the rightful treatment, train man. You don't want to see the non-rightful one. Now, I'll ask you questions and you'll answer. It's as easy as it gets,” Karofsky said, poking him with his sword. “Why did you think that coming here with one ship would make any sense? Are you the vanguard or something? Should I expect more of you stupid people coming here?”

Blaine ignored his question. “Where's Kurt? I know Jesse brought him to you,” he asked, instead. “Where is he? Is he okay? I demand to see him immediately and be sure no harm has been done to him.”

Karofsky felt the anger coming up and pooling in his stomach, together with the sudden urge of killing Anderson and everybody else with him. “Let's make this straight, Anderson. You can't negotiate, you can't demand anything, you can't do anything I don't tell you to. So, now you will tell me what I need to know or you die. I won't ask again. What are you doing here with one of our old ships?”

Anderson glared at him for the longest time. “Where is Kurt?”

“Fine,” Karofsky growled, nodding to one of his men. “Gag him too. I don't even know why I try to be kind with land people.”

As two sailors held Blaine and a third one gagged him, Rachel came forward, ignoring the swords and pistols instantly aimed at her. “Captain Karofsky, wait!” She cried out to catch his attention. “We have something important to tell you. The situation is bad and is bound to get even worse.”

“Miss, please,” Karofsky said, sighing resigned. He was already tired to deal with everyone. He had a fleet to recover, people to mourn, families of dead sailors to take care of. “Don't force me to gag you too. There's only one thing I want to know from your commander. If you don't plan to tell me, then just keep your mouth close because it might become unpleasant otherwise.”

“You don't understand!” Rachel shouted out again. “it's not about you or us anymore.”

She came even forward, alarming her guards that warned her to back off immediately. The crowd was already screaming and growling to Blaine's soldiers, and everywhere there was cursing and crying and demanding death for the prisoners.

From inside of Karofsky's house, which was close to the harbour but not enough to make out any words, Kurt was hearing an indistinct noise. He tried to peek out from a window but he couldn't see anything except the growing crowd in the distance, so he decided to go and see for himself. Since the only way for him to escape Titan would be jumping off the rock, and he wouldn't have done that for his life anymore after his last horrible experience with the worms, Dave had no reason to keep him locked in. The captain had actually granted Kurt the permission to come and go as he pleased as long as he always came back. It was a very strange way to keep someone captive, but Kurt was not going to discuss it as he opened the door and got out.

When he got close enough to see the new ship harboured towering above the screaming crowd, he heard Rachel's voice and recognized it as it was the most irritating thing he had ever heard on his fiancée's train. “Rachel?” He called, trying to make his way among a wall of furious, immovable sailors. 

“Mister Hummel?” She stopped talking with the captain, recognizing him as well. Both Blaine and Jesse turned to her and followed her gaze as Kurt came out of the crowd, angry already for having to struggle that much just to pass.

“What's going on? Why are you here?” He asked. Then, eventually, he saw gagged Blaine. “Blaine!” He exclaimed, outraged. “Captain, why is he gagged?”

Karofsky closed his eyes for a moment, praying the Gods to give him the strength to get to the end of that day without blood on his hands. “Because unfortunately he can speak,” he answered. “Now, you get here and away from the prisoners.”

“Captain, please,” Rachel tried again, looking at Kurt for support. She didn't know why he was unchained and walking freely, but she took it as and advantage for them. “We're all in danger.”

“What is she talking about?”

“Come here,” Karofsky repeated.

Kurt stayed where he was and crossed his arm to his chest. “I understand that you must have had good reasons to gag Blaine and St. James,” he said, angry enough not to obey but still not wanting to undermine the captain's authority among his people, “but Rachel could have something useful to say. Let her speak, and if she doesn't, gag her too.”

“He might have a point,” Santana murmured, her glow subsided. “Let her speak. If what she says is really useful, then she is safe. If it's not, she'll be the first to die.”

Rachel's eyes widened and Jesse started struggling against the man who held him, trying to get free. That's when Kurt decided he could indeed come closer. “Are you going to kill her?” He asked, shocked.

“Only if she wastes my time,” Karofsky growled. “So, miss... Rachel, I presume?”

“Wait!” Kurt came in front of him and then turned to Rachel. “Rachel, are you sure that this is something the captain needs to know?”

Rachel hardly swallowed the lump of fear she had in her throat. She knew she had no other choice but talk because it was that or be killed later. Besides, even if Karofsky didn't want to kill them all to use them as hostages, the Queen was going to rather let them all die than give the pirate what he wanted. “Yes. He wants and needs to know what we have to say,” she confirmed, looking right in Karofsky's eyes. “Captain, please.”

Kurt enforced her plea by looking at him as well, his green eyes tender and pleading literally burning a hole in Karofsky's soft heart. “Fine. I'll listen to you,” he agreed, nodding to the men holding Rachel, Blaine and Jesse. “Bring them to my house.” Then he grabbed Kurt by the wrist and dragged him away.

*

After they told him everything that had been going on since the moment Kurt was kidnapped upon his request, Dave stood silent for a while and looked at them all scattered in his living room, frowning. Jesse was perched on the windowsill, one foot nonchalantly resting on the back of his great-grandfather favourite's armchair, on which Rachel was sitting. Blaine and Kurt, holding hands like the sappy sweethearts they were, occupied the couch.

“Why in the world should I believe you?” Dave growled, crossing his arms to his chest both in an attempt of showing his frustration and keeping distance from them all.

“I would never lie to you about something like that!” Blaine said, his wounded pride showing in his hazel eyes. “I would never say the Queen is involved if it weren't true. It might come as a surprise to you, but it's been a great shock for me finding out what was going on.”

Dave rolled his eyes at the drama in Blaine's voice. “I know you wouldn't. You've always been unreasonably loyal to the Royal Army to the point of shame,” he said. “But St. James? He would sell his mother if they made a good price.”

“Hey! That's not true. Now I'm offended,” Jesse straighten up. “I would never sell my mother. Those rumours about that auction three years ago were completely groundless. And I would certainly not lie about... OK, maybe I lie every now and then, but not this time! And I can prove it to you, captain.”

Dave raised an eyebrow, amused. “I wanna live to see that happen, St. James.”

“I'm telling the truth!” He insisted, jumping off the windowsill and walking to the front of the room, right next to Dave. “She sells weapons to both armies through figureheads but they need to keep track of every transaction because that's the law. Everything is well documented, including the links between her and her figureheads – you wouldn't believe some of the names - and she keeps everything that could possibly incriminate her in her vault.”

Dave was totally unimpressed. “The vault is probably in her palace, which makes it virtually off-limits,” he said. “This way, your truth can't be disproved. Very clever, St. James.”

“No! No! No!” Jesse shook his head. “Why are you all so quick to say I'm a liar? I mean, that's my job. You can't really blame a man for earning his living the only way he can!”

“Actually...” Blaine started.

“But I'm not working right now,” Jesse cut him off abruptly. “So I have no need to lie. Besides, I know the codes to the Queen's Palace. Either I can open her doors or I can't. It will be easy to find out if I'm telling the truth.”

Somehow, that made sense. But if Jesse had ever seemed trustworthy, he didn't now after double-crossing basically everyone involved. Dave couldn't think of a single thing that could come out of this for him, but if there was something, St. James had already thought that out for sure. “I don't know,” Dave said. “I still don't trust you.”

“Well, you have nothing to lose, haven't you?” Jesse said, shrugging. “If you believe the Queen's involved, then you have to go to the Palace anyway. If I tell the truth, which I do, entering will be easy. If not, then you have to bomb it down or whatever you pirates do.”

“We don't bomb down anything, you moron!” Dave made a face. “Who the hell do you think we are?”

“I don't know. You do have cannons, right?”

“Yes, but...” Dave trailed off and then sighed, massaging his temples. There was no time nor use to discuss with him the way of the pirates. Besides, he was talking like that to provoke him or to distract him, Dave wasn't sure which one. “Listen, even if you weren't lying, it could still be a trap. I've lost most of my fleet already. I don't know if I'm ready to trust your idea with what's left of it.”

Santana's bracelet glowed, softly. “Dave?” She said, and it was like she was there, resting an hand on his arm to calm him down. The captain knew that, whatever she was going to tell, he was about to say yes. He could hear it in her voice. “He has a point. We don't have much of a choice about this. Either we fight her or we don't, and right now people are angry. We've been fighting this war for so long. Hiding is not an option for us anymore.”

“We don't have enough men.”

“We do,” she glowed twice. “Puckerman's men will fight with you. And so will do Lauren's. And I bet all the people on Titan will be ready to join us, if we ask them to. There's no point in staying here, waiting for the queen to understand that we know and take action. We need to strike before she does.”

Blaine swallowed hard, taking a step forward. “I can't reroute the entire army, but my battletrain will be with you. If it gets down to a battle, we're going to cover for you from the tracks. It's just one train, but it's the best one the Queen has.”

He smirked at the irony and Dave couldn't help but smile too.

“Alright,” he said eventually. “Let's go to take her down.”

*

A town meeting to reveal the latest news about their not-so-enlightened queen had been enough for all the captains and every other man who owned a boat to give it to Dave Karofsky. After only two days of preparations, Karofsky had a new fleet, not as big as the one he had lost but big enough to hopefully take over the capital once the queen would have been out of the way.

They were all back on the normal routes now that the conductors weren't looking for them anymore and, down the currents, Dave had planned to reach the capital in just a few days. Once there, Blaine and his crew would get off the Fury to reach Blaine's battletrain, that was currently parked inside the city. And since Dave couldn't be totally convinced of the conductor's best intentions, Puckerman and some of his men were going to go with them.

Actually, the moment of bonding between Blaine and Dave had completely dissipated and now Blaine's fate was hanging by the thin thread of Dave's patience as the captain was more prone to kill him than do anything else with him, let alone trust him. All things considered, Blaine was still a prisoner and so was Kurt, but apparently both of them had forgotten that and spent most of the time looking at each other in the eyes and walking hand in hand on the deck of Dave's ship, making each other giggling stupidly. Dave was so fed up with them that he was considering brushing up the old plank and feed the sharks. Unfortunately, there weren't sharks in the air, but any bird of prey would do the trick.

“You know, if you stop staring for a moment, they won't disappear,” Santana's voice said, mocking him.

Dave blushed and cleared his throat, his eyes shifting on the most boring horizon he had ever seen. Sailing the flagship on a quiet day meant you would see nothing but miles and miles of clean sky for hours. “I was checking the bow,” he said.

“Which is the other way,” Santana commented. “Are we losing notion of our own ship or any ship in general, for that matter, captain?”

He blushed even more. “I was distracted,” he mumbled. “Did you need me to pass you over?”

“No,” she said, amused. “Brittany is chasing butterflies on the forecastle at this hour of the day. I don't want to bother her.”

“Right. Never stop important procedures,” he said, ironically. Santana laughed. “So, is there a reason why you're making fun of me or are you doing that for the sake of it?”

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you,” she said.

“What about?”

She waited for a moment as if she was giving him the time to think about the answer to his own question, but when the answer didn't come, she just sighed. “You know that I know, don't you?”

Dave hurried to look away from the bracelet. He had never understood how Santana could see things from inside that thing, but she could, and he didn't want to let her see his eyes right now. “I don't know what you're talking about.”

“You like him,” Santana said, plainly. “You like him big time. I hadn't seen you so into someone since... I actually don't even remember since when.”

Dave's heart skipped a beat, but he managed not to show it too much. “Would you mind stop talking in riddles?” He said, instead. “I would ask you to stop saying crazy stuff, but that's just plain impossible.”

“I bet it started the moment you laid your eyes on him,” she continued. “It'd explain the grumpiness and the fact that you are constantly fighting with him. You're attracted to him so much that it makes you angry. It's so you.”

“Listen,” he snapped, almost pouting at the bracelet. “I don't like Kurt, ok?”

It came the amused, mocking sound of her chuckle again. “Never said a name, Dave.”

Dave turned a red so bright he was almost glowing. “You're a bitch,” he growled, still managing to make it sound somewhat tender and not offensive.

“And how is this news exactly?”

“Whatever.” Dave turned again, feeling the chill air on his skin. “I don't like him anyway.”

Santana's sigh could be heard from a distance. “You know there's nothing wrong if you like him, right?” She said, conversationally. “He is generally irritating and mildly stupid sometimes, but he is really beautiful. I can see what your hormones must be doing in your head every time he turns that little nose towards you and look at you. He's actually your type, so that doesn't even come as a surprise to me.”

“You know very well I gave up on such things long ago,” he reminded her.

“This is a perfect moment unlike any other to pick up the old habit. We could be all dead in a few days. What's the point in hanging on grudges and pains of the past?” She watched him watching Kurt, who was currently giggling because of something Blaine had just told him. He had that demure behaviour that made him look like a young lady. “I mean, look at you! In the past fifteen minutes you went from 'I don't know what you're talking about Santana', to 'I don't like Kurt', to 'If only I hadn't given up on love'. You're making progress!”

Dave rolled his eyes. There was no way he could escape her. “Even if I liked him, and I'm not saying I do, it would be useless. He is a prisoner.”

“So what?” She asked. “He can't be unprisoned? In fact, at the moment he is more of an ally, or the cute boyfriend of your alley if you wanna see it that way. He stopped being a prisoner when you decided he could live in your house, you know?”

“That was a precautionary measure,” he muttered.

She chuckled. “And I'm not half-dead, I’m just half-living.”

Dave's eyes darkened, as they did every time her incident came up. It was weird how she had been able to get over it and he didn't. “Don't say that. You're alive. And as soon as I put my hands on that alchemist, you will be walking again.”

“Yes, don't worry. Calm down, that was just a figure of speech,” she said, trying to cheer up his suddenly gloomy mood. “My opinion still stands, though. You like him, so you should do something about it.”

“I don't wanna cheat on you.”

An invisible eyebrow rose. “You're lucky we've never been together, then,” she said, scoffing. But then she sighed. Knowing Dave well as she did, she knew how his head worked. “Dave, really, as much as we were, are or will be close, I won't get angry if you find yourself a lover. I'll still be your partner, won't I? Fuck, I am still your partner and I don't even have a body!”

“What about Anderson?” Dave insisted. “He barely leaves Kurt's side to go to the bathroom and Kurt seems in love with him.”

“Then fight for him!” Santana exclaimed, her light as strong and fierce as her voice. “You're a pirate, Dave! You're naturally more charming than the average man! You've got a ship, you've got a crew of brave men, you smell of controlled danger and adventure!”

This time was Dave's turn to frown. “Are you writing an advertisement or what?”

“The point is, Dave, that he likes you too,” she continued, in a softer voice. “Or he will as soon as he takes that stick out of his ass and realizes how bad he wants to be taken by someone rough as you are for a change.”

“Are you sure about this?” The captain asked and he couldn't help but turning to watch Kurt exploring the Fury with his somewhat squeamish curiosity. He wanted to understand everything he looked at, but he wouldn't touch it for his life.

“I'm a woman able to control a ship from a bracelet where my soul is locked,” Santana answered. “Are you doubting my skills?”

“No, of course not,” Dave sighed. “Fine, I’ll give it a try. And if it doesn't work I could always kill them both.”

“Kill your failures. Kill it with fire,” Santana said, pretending to be serious and unimpressed. “Sounds good to me. Now, let's get this ship to a faster pace. We're falling asleep, Cap'n. You know she can go faster than that.”

Dave nodded to one of his men who caught the hint and climbed the shrouds to free the sails. The captain reached the helm and made it spin. “As you wish, M'lady,” he said as the Fury made a turn and caught the perfect current, speeding away. As his crew laughed happily and the land people fell on their asses, he smirked. Fighting for Kurt, he could do that. Fighting was the only thing he was good at, after all.


	5. Chapter 5

Chasing butterflies was a very wearing activity for Brittany. For some reason she seemed to get more tired running after insects than fighting. Probably because butterflies flew randomly, while in battle she was able to predict her enemy's every move. Nobody knew why she would turn back to be the simple-minded girl she was the moment the brawl was over.

She was now laying on her back on deck as she looked at the bright sky above her, Santana's bracelet on her belly. Dave had to discuss strategies with his new allies – even though he insisted on calling them prisoners – and Santana could do without the manly meeting with all that testosterone washing over the maps. Dave would fill her in later and she would say to him if they had an actual plan or just some macho bullshits that they would need to change completely.

“So, did you catch any?” Santana asked, glowing a tender pink.

Brittany closed her eyes against the burning sun and enjoyed the wind. “There's no fun in the chasing if you catch things.”

“You are right, as always,” Santana said, and her voice seemed to smile. She always felt some kind of tenderness towards Brittany that was even stronger and deeper than love. She loved her, of course, but it wasn't just that. Santana didn't want just to be with her, she felt the need to protect her – emotionally more than physically –, to be the glass wall between her and the world around her. Something that Brittany could see through, but that stopped anything from hurting her. She was so special, so precious, but not anyone saw that. And off the ship, when everything was harsher, Santana took care of her. This, more than the ability to move, was the main reason why she missed her body. She couldn't hug her when she needed it. Her presence in voice was not enough.

Santana didn't remember the day they had met because it was like they had always known each other. They had started off as friends and then something changed, but so gradually, so undetectably, that she didn't know the moment she had looked at Brittany and knew she loved her. Maybe she always did.

The day she was shot by the soldiers, Brittany was somewhere else. Dave had waited hours to tell her, but when he did, she was the only one who didn't freak out. “There's nothing wrong with her,” she said. “She's still alive.”

Scared and upset after being deprived of her body and hurled in a world of stillness, Santana had laughed happily because Brittany had made everything easier once again. Nothing had been particularly unbearable for her since Brittany's comment.

She would have continued enjoying the happy reminiscence of her and Brittany's story, but she saw Blaine coming out alone from the captain's quarter and decided it was the right moment to do what she had plained to attempt for a few hours, now. “Brit, would you mind bring me to the conductor?”

“Hmn?” Brittany looked down at the bracelet and she looked at it like she would have looked at a real person's face, with the same intensity and expecting it to move and change expression. “That Blaine guy? Sure.”

Brittany approached Blaine who was intently looking at some knotted rope trying to make any sense out of it, and she tapped him on his shoulder. “She wants to speak with you,” she said, giving him the bracelet.

“Anderson, can I have a word?” Santana said when she saw the void in Blaine's eyes, looking at the bracelet.

“Oh. Of course,” he said then, clearing his throat and taking the armlet carefully. Clearly he had no idea how to deal with it. “How does it work? Do I have to put this on or...?”

“You can put it on or you can hold it, it doesn't really matter,” Santana said. “I will speak anyway. You can't even turn me off. I'm not an alarm clock.”

“I wasn't dreaming of...”

“Yes, whatever. Now, can we go some place quiet?” She ordered. He nodded again and brought her on the other side of the boat, away from working sailors. If Dave saw this, he would have been really angry. He would have feared Blaine could drop her overboard.

“So,” he was really embarrassed. “What can I do for you, miss Santana?”

“Santana is enough,” She hastily said. “It's not what you can do for me, but what you should not be doing. You see, my dear friend and captain of this ship has grown fond of young mister Hummel while he was taking care of him after you let Jesse kidnap him.”

“Excuse me?” Blaine asked, struggling to keep the irritation out of his voice. “It was your dear friend and captain of this ship that wanted him kidnapped.”

“Yes, but it was you who let him out of your sight and left him here, at our mercy, for countless days.”

“I was looking for him!” Blaine protested.

Santana glowed nodding, even though Blaine had no idea. “Yes, and when you found him, you let us capture you and your whole crew. A really good job. Seriously, is it your idea of taking care of him?”

Blaine was now totally irritated and only his ten years long education in a strictly all-male school was stopping him to be very unpleasant with her. “Things aren't exactly like this, miss Santana,” he hissed. “Your captain, who's a man of very low moral and with no sense of honour whatsoever, no matter how many times he talks about it, paid a mercenary to kidnap an innocent civilian and kept him segregated even though he must have known the poor boy couldn't help him with anything.”

“He didn't segregate him, Anderson,” Santana said, clearly calmer than him. “He kept him safe in a ship's cell and this accommodation proved to be the right one, since mister Hummel decided it was perfectly fine for him to run away and risk his life venturing in one of the most dangerous and unknown parts of the Floating Lands with no hope to get out of there alive.”

“What? Did Kurt risk his life?”

“You can bet he did, land boy,” Santana said. “Didn't he tell you? He escaped from the ship and got lost on a belt of rocks inhabited by giant earthworms. And for your information, Dave was already gone when this happened. He turned the fleet around and lost more than half of it to save him.”

“I didn't know that.”

“There's a hell lot of things you don't know.”

Blaine was still shocked by the news and took note of talking with Kurt about that ater, but there was another matter now that required his attention. “Listen, I will be forever grateful to Captain Karofsky for saving Kurt and I'll make sure to tell him so, but that's it. Kurt is my fiancée and, honestly, I find quite pitiable that you come here in Karofsky's place, asking me to back off. I don't know if this is the way of the pirates, but it's certainly not mine.”

“I'm not here to plead for him, Anderson. I came to tell you about the situation here,” she said. “Dave is not a man at peace. He had his bad luck in love some years ago. He was in love with this man, name's Sebastian. He was another captain of an ally ship. They got along pretty well and get past friendship really fast. Dave was happy, happier than I've ever seen him. But Sebastian was not the kind of guy who stays with you forever, you know? He didn't do relationship, and Dave ended up with his heart broken and a strong distrust in love.”

“I'm sorry to hear that, miss,” Blaine said, obligingly. “But I don't see why you are telling me this.”

“I'm telling you this because something has changed in him, maybe not enough for him to make the first step yet, but he's undoubtedly changed. He likes Kurt, I can tell, and I don't want him hurt again,” she said, in a serious voice. “Especially when I suspect Kurt is feeling the same.”

“How do you dare to imply that...”

“You've been away from him a long time, Blaine,” she continued, not letting him speak. “And it's actually your responsibility if any of this is even possible. You let Kurt be taken here and you were late enough for them to bond. You can see where this is going...”

“This is nonsense.”

Santana glowed red, but her voice stayed calm. “We have a war to fight and we're all supposed to work our ass off if we want a chance to win. If Dave is not okay though, this ship is useless. Now, you're responsible for the current situation, so it's up to you to make it right.”

Blaine frowned. “What do you expect me to do? Give him away to Karofsky?”

“If you see it fit,” she smiled, greenish. “But I don't know. I just wanted you to know. This is what Dave wants, and I usually make sure that nothing comes between him and what makes him happy. I just prefer talking to people before doing anything else.”

Blaine felt threatened but it didn't even cross his mind to get rid of the bracelet and the menace it carried. Also, when Santana ended the conversation and asked to be brought back to Brittany, he obliged. He was too confused and freaked out to say anything. Later, he sat back alone and thought about what she had said and wondered if it really made sense because somehow, somewhere deep inside himself he knew he had failed Kurt. Would it be really surprising if Kurt had fallen in love with the captain who saved him while he himself couldn't? With an incoming headache threatening to split his head in half, he went in search of the ship's doctor – if they had one – and decided that whatever decision he had to make about it, it could wait an aspirin.

*

The sail had been nothing but quiet and smooth, up to that moment, but when captain Karofsky saw commander Anderson walk up the stairs and then stop near him – honestly a little bit too close – he instantly knew the day was about to worsen.

“Hello, commander Karofsky,” Blaine said, waving a hand at him. 

Dave turned to look at him, slightly shivering in a sudden rage fit. “It’s _captain_ ,” he snorted, grinding his teeth, “We’re pirates, we don’t follow your army’s hierarchy.”

“That’s undoubtedly true,” Blaine said, not even trying to hide the superior gaze he cold-showered Dave with, “I’m sorry, captain. Force of habit. I was wondering, do you think I could speak with you for a minute? Privately?”

“There’s nothing you could possibly have to tell me, that can’t be shared with the rest of my crew,” Dave answered, bringing his hands back on the helm and his eyes back on the horizon, pretending to be deeply caught up in sailing the ship while truth was he was dying to just hear what that man had to tell him, to finally get rid of him.

Blaine watched the sunlight hit the golden bracelet wrapped around Dave’s wrist. The stone Santana talked from and apparently lived in shone for a second so brightly Blaine almost found himself blinded by its light. He wondered if that woman was laughing to herself, mocking him and the way she had so easily convinced him to take the first step and possibly cover himself in shame. He sighed, shaking his head as if to clear it from such negative thoughts. “I believe you’d rather keep private what I’m going to tell you.”

Dave half-turned to meet his eyes, frowning. “Is it something I should worry about?”

“No,” Blaine answered, “Not really, I just—”

“Why don’t you just shut up and take him to your cabin, Dave?” Santana’s voice interrupted him, sounding both impatient and irritated with the way they were conducing the conversation. 

“Okay, okay… fine,” Dave scoffed, glaring at Santana but ultimately leaving his place to the helmsman. “This way,” he said, leading Blaine down the stairs and inside his cabin, the only one that could be reached directly from the deck.

Captain Karofsky’s cabin was nothing like Blaine expected it to be. He had imagined a cold, simple room with cold, simple furniture arranged in a cold, simple fashion, just like the man he knew – or thought he knew – was. He was surprised to find out it was quite a warm, welcoming personal space, decorated with taste and a clear sense of devotion for the pirate life. It was eye-opening, in a way. He had always thought the pirates were cruel, merciless people, but after all wasn’t that what he was taught to think? And weren’t the one who taught him following the orders of somebody who just wanted the hate to spread so to keep the war alive?

“So?” Karofsky asked harshly, standing in front of him with his arms crossed over his chest. His voice dragged Blaine out of the almost daydreaming state he had fallen in while wondering about him. “What was it?”

Blaine cleared his throat, moving a couple of steps away from him to try and look casual about what he was going to say. “So,” he started off, examining a map opened on the table, “Your lady captain friend tells me you may be interested in my fiancée.”

A sudden, icy silence fell on the room, and for a moment Dave seemed to have forgotten how to even breath. “E-Excuse me?” he asked, while Santana’s voice screeched from his bracelet.

“You idiot!” the woman screamed, glowing a bright, enraged red, “This isn’t the way you talk to people about this kind of things!”

“Santana, shut the fuck up,” Dave interrupted her, clutching his fists, “Commander, I don’t know how she became so convinced about this, but—”

“I can understand,” Blaine stopped him, turning around to search for the captain’s eyes, “Kurt’s very beautiful.”

“Now,” Dave frowned, starting to sound and look awfully irritated by the whole situation, “Let’s just stop it with this Kurt-is-very-beautiful thing, he’s not a fucking god and it’s not like watching him makes me all hot and bothered, so—”

“Is it true?” Blaine asked, staring intently at him, “Do you like him?”

Dave’s arms dropped, as well as his jaw. “Are you even listening to me?!” he screamed after a couple of seconds of astonished silence, “I just told you it’s something Santana made up in her mind! If— If you’re jealous of him because he shows himself off like some willing prey waiting for wolves to feed on him, and if you came here to search for an excuse to, I don’t know, repudiate him or something, I’m sorry, man, I can’t help you. This is not my problem! There’s nothing between me and your fancy boyfriend, I didn’t even lay a single finger on him, so leave me alone, ‘cause that’s all I want!”

At first, Anderson seemed a little taken aback by his angry monologue, so much that, for a couple of seconds that totally felt like an eternity or two, he didn’t even speak. 

When he made his move, though, Dave distinctly thought he had preferred him when he was frozen still, and that’s because, after he considered what he had just heard for that couple of eternities, Blaine just walked closer to him, covered the distance separating them and kissed him. Just like that. It didn’t even took him that much.

In the blink of an eye, it was over, but not for Dave. He could still feel the warmth of the man’s lips against his, their soft pressure, Blaine’s masculine, strong taste. 

It was like slamming open a door that had been kept locked for centuries, releasing the beast kept captive inside the room. He grabbed Blaine by his shoulders and slammed him against the wall, pushing himself against him the second after. While Santana screamed a worried “whoa, wait!”, he pressed his lips against Blaine’s, dragging him into a rough, hungry and open kiss.

Blaine took it like a man. He didn’t let out a single whimper, nor he gave Dave the privilege to even try and lead: he stood his ground, freeing himself from the forceful hold of Dave’s fingers wrapped around his shoulders and holding tight to his forearms, while Dave placed his hands on Blaine’s hips in a futile attempt to keep him still if he ever wanted to back off from the kiss – a thing he actually had no intentions to do.

The kiss didn’t stop: it wore off. At some point, they just slowed down and parted from each other. By then, Santana had already fallen into a shocked and quite embarrassed silence, after having screamed for ten minutes straight that she was still there and she didn’t want to be a part of what was happening. Both of them had just ignored her.

After literally almost a decade since his last kiss, Dave found himself in need of a couple of minutes to regain his composure. He felt hot, embarrassed, confused, and awfully self-conscious, at least enough to sense he was starting to sweat. It had to be a nightmare. Nightmares could be that pleasant, after all.

When he opened his eyes, he wasn’t surprised to see Anderson smile with clear satisfaction. He didn’t even have a single hair out of place, that bastard.

“You better wipe that smug smile off your face, Anderson,” Dave growled, “If you don’t want my fist to wipe it away for you.”

“There will be no need for that,” Blaine answered, smiling brightly and patting Dave on his shoulder, “Everything’s alright. Now I have confirmation of what your captain lady friend told me, and—”

“Stop it with this captain lady friend thing!” Dave barked, “She’s—”

“It doesn’t matter, really,” Blaine chuckled, opening the collar of his uniform and giving Dave the first real sign that he had been affected by that kiss just as much as Dave himself, after all. “What matters is that now I know.”

“What does this even mean?!” Dave screamed, staring blankly at him, “You know nothing, commander Anderson!”

“I know just enough, captain Karofsky,” Blaine chuckled again, shrugging lightly. “Listen, I really appreciate you as a person. You’re honest, strong, proud and brave, and you seem like a good man. I understand your feelings, and I don’t think there’s a reason why I should keep you from your happiness, if that’s what it takes you to get it.”

“…excuse me?” Dave breathed heavily, arms dropping by his sides.

“Besides,” Blaine kept talking as if he didn’t even hear him, “Tough times are ahead, and I can’t have you weak and unfocused. So you can have Kurt for one night, given that you manage to convince him, and that I can be there, in the room, watching while it happens.”

“You… You dirty pervert!” Santana scoffed, glowing a wild, blazing red.

“It’s not a matter of perversion, my lady,” Blaine answered, looking even a bit outraged by her words, “I just want to make sure everything goes smoothly and Kurt is safe. He is my fiancée, after all.”

After that, he just turned to look at Dave, waiting for an answer.

“You’re completely crazy,” Dave said, his voice still too weak to sound threatening in any way.

“Maybe,” Blaine smiled, “But a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do. They say that all’s fair in love and war. Let’s find out if it’s true.”

Unable to even think about something to reply, Dave stood still and silent, and watched as Blaine turned around and left the room, clearly satisfied with himself for having solved such a complex and delicate problem.

“Is this really happening?” he asked Santana, still staring at the open door through which Blaine had left.

“I guess it is,” she answered. He heard her swallow. “Just, Dave… next time, make sure you pass me over to Britt, before you find yourself alone in a room with that man, ‘right?”

*

When Dave found him, Kurt was alone on the prow, nervously watching the landscape as it changed in front of his eyes with every hour of sail. They had chosen to take the longer but safer way, sailing around the whole continent to reach the Capital from the mountains that naturally covered it back instead of sailing through the desert sky to meet breach in it by the principal gate. It was probably going to take them several days more, if not a whole week, but it was worth it, not only for security reasons, but also because the sight was breathtaking. They were now sailing along the cliff, several feet above the surface of the sea that shone brightly with sunlight hitting the waves under them.

Kurt often went there on the prow to enjoy the view. Dave knew it, because he barely could manage to take his eyes off him the whole day long. It wasn’t unusual to find him there, what _was_ unusual, though, was to find him there alone.

Walking towards him, Dave started to wonder if Anderson had already talked with him, if he had sent him there alone knowing Dave would ultimately find him there, ready to hear what he had to tell him – and probably slap him in the face.

The whole thing just felt so wrong, and – unsurprisingly – having Anderson’s permission to move wasn’t making it any better.

“Kurt?” Dave called out, walking slowly in Kurt’s direction, arms crossed behind his back to try and look as unthreatening as possible.

Kurt turned around in a sudden, nervous movement. He was biting at his lower lip and torturing his hands, and he was so unnaturally pale that, for a moment, Dave wondered about his health and asked himself if maybe something was wrong with their last meal.

Then he realized, and he knew what he had thought was true: Kurt already knew all, Blaine had already told him everything.

Dave instantly blushed, looking at the wooden floor under his leather boots, unable to speak a single word more.

“Captain,” Kurt greeted him with a little nod and a forced, uncertain smile. His voice was shaky and he sounded on the verge of bursting into a nervous cry. 

“I assume your fiancée already told you what... what this is about,” Dave tried, scratching his nape and looking away, his cheeks flushing red.

Kurt nodded, eyes locked on the ground. “Yeah...” he admitted, “But I still would like to hear it from you own voice, if it’s not too much to ask for, Captain.”

Dave swallowed. Embarrassment was starting to cloud his judgement, and Kurt was proving himself to be a tough nut to crack. “Is this another proof of your frankly quite unbearable pride, Hummel?”

Kurt frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. “Of course you had to go and be unpleasant about it, didn’t you?” he scoffed, nervously tapping his feet against the wooden floor, producing a regular and unnerving clicking sound, “Stupid me, trying to be polite despite the inappropriate situation _you_ ’re putting me in.”

Dave’s lips opened up in a half smile. “That’s more like you, don’t you think?” he asked in an amused chuckle.

Kurt opened his eyes wide, looking at him with clear embarrassment as his cheeks turned a bright shade of pink. “What... What do you even mean?!” he asked, clutching his fists in a fit of sudden anger.

“Calm down,” Dave smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder and brushing it quite roughly, though weirdly pleasantly, before letting his fingers slide down Kurt’s arm in a sweet caress, “I just meant that I know you’re well-mannered, but you sound more... authentic, I guess, when you’re acting superior and arrogant.”

Kurt instantly looked down, blushing even more. “That’s... not really a compliment, you know?”

“Isn’t it?” Dave arched an eyebrow, still smiling at Kurt, “I meant it as one. I like those traits of your character. They’re the most honest and straightforward part of yourself. You wild side, I’d say,” he added in a sly laughter.

“W-Wild?!” Kurt snapped, looking up again. His whole face was now red as a cherry, and Dave laughed again, almost tenderly, feeling unreasonably proud for having cornered Kurt’s smart ass that way – actually, in more than just one way.

“I guess I’ll have to be the first one to admit it,” he conceded at last, taking a deep breath to try and gain some courage to do it, “It’d be pointless to keep denying it anyway. It’s true, I do... have an interest in you.”

Kurt swallowed, biting at his inner cheek. “How did it happen?”

“I don’t know,” Dave answered honestly, shrugging a bit, “I guess you really are outstandingly beautiful, as they say.”

“ _They_?” Kurt asked, looking up at him and arching an eyebrow. Gods, that raising eyebrow did unspeakable _things_ to Dave’s self-control.

“Mainly, though,” he continued, nimbly avoiding Kurt’s question, “I just want to... protect you, I guess.”

Kurt’s lips parted in surprise, as he tried to remember how he used to breath up until a second before. “Protect me?”

“Yeah,” Dave nodded, “I don’t know why. I should probably just hate you for the troubles you caused me and my crew, or despise you for the kind of people you represent, but really, I just want to be the one keeping you safe. You...” Dave swallowed, “Make me feel warm like nobody else has been able to do in a very long time.”

Kurt stood still for a moment, blushing and slightly trembling. He had never felt that way either. It had been completely different, with Blaine, it had felt natural, as if they were born to meet and ultimately own each other. The tension cracking the air between him and the captain was of a completely different nature, instead. It felt uncertain, dangerous, potentially painful, and so, so wrong. Pleasantly so.

“Well...” he started off, clearing his throat, “I guess... Considering the hard times ahead of us... It’s a very peculiar situation, I can’t... You know, I can’t just ignore the fact that we could all be dead by the time we try to break the Capital’s frontline, and...”

“Your boyfriend taught you well, didn’t him?” Dave grinned, looking down at Kurt with his hands on his hips.

Kurt pouted, crossing his arms over his chest once more. “ _And_ ,” he resumed, “I actually happen to like you too.”

Dave blinked, holding his breath. Caught off guard, for a couple of seconds he couldn’t even gather his thoughts. He had none. “Do you?” he asked, almost chocking on his own voice.

Kurt looked away, blushing again. “Yes,” he nodded, “You... make me feel warm too. So, if you really do want... me, I guess...”

“I do,” Dave said in a hurry, before the courage he had hardly gathered slipped out of him, “I do.”

Kurt looked up at him, his eyes shining of a new, jaunty light. His gaze sent shivers up and down Dave’s spine, and that was really all they both needed to know to decide that, despite how wrong that whole thing felt, it was probably the best they could do too.

*

Kurt insisted on keeping the lights off. Dave had offered to light some candles, since Blaine seemed so eager to watch whatever was going to happen between them, but when Blaine had asked Kurt how he preferred the lights to be, he had instantly asked if it was a problem to not have any light at all.

It wasn’t. Actually, Dave thought it was better that way too. He felt embarrassed and out of place enough not to really feel any kind of need to have the room thoroughly illuminated. The moonshine coming in from the portholes was already enough to see the silhouettes and, if watched closely enough, even facial expressions. Dave wasn’t exactly aching to be able to see anything more.

“Please, don’t mind me,” Blaine said, looking around the room and then deciding the best place to place himself in was the huge armchair behind Dave’s wooden table. He dragged it closer to the bed and sat there with his legs crossed, sipping from the glass of red wine he had accepted when Dave had asked him and Kurt if they wanted anything to drink.

Sitting still, almost paralyzed, on the edge of the bed, Dave looked at him and snorted. “How could I ever stop minding you? You’re sitting on a fucking _throne_ sipping wine like an evil mastermind.”

“I was just trying to be polite,” Blaine answered with a light, clearly amused chuckle.

“Blaine, come on,” Kurt sighed, approaching the bed but standing right beside it, uncertain on what to do next, “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Alright, alright,” Blaine scoffed another laughter, shrugging, “It’s just that you two look like somebody who could use to have their mood lightened up a bit. Don’t be so serious about it, let’s say we’re just giving it a try and see how it works out.”

Kurt sighed, muttering an uncertain “fine” under his breath and finally climbing on the bed, while Dave looked at them both in complete disconcertment.

“You’re both completely out of your fucking minds, you know that, don’t you?” he said, turning around a bit to watch as Kurt started to peel off himself the numerous and, frankly, kind of useless layers of clothes he was wearing. 

“Captain, please,” Blaine said in a sigh, “Don’t make this even more awkward than it already is. Just try and be natural about it.”

He said it like it was actually something simple to accomplish. Dave snorted, growling a “fine” that mirrored the one Kurt had said just before. He was starting to understand Anderson’s charm, after all. He was one of those people that ultimately managed to had things done their way despite how much people surrounding them could complain about it, and what amazed Dave the most was that he didn’t even have to struggle to get exactly what he wanted. He sure had a talent for bossing people around. He would have made a perfect king.

When Dave finally turned around, Kurt was standing on his knees, right in the middle of the bed. He had his jacket, vest and shirt off, and he was holding himself in an uncertain, embarrassed embrace. His skin looked pale and smooth in the moonlight they were bathing in, and he was looking at Dave with eyes filled with a mixture of fear, anxiety and anticipation, the same Dave could feel burning inside his own spirit, firing it up.

He moved on the mattress, getting closer to Kurt. He placed his hands on Kurt’s shoulders, feeling the softness of his skin under his fingertips. It was inebriating, just like feeling his breath so close to himself it kept caressing his face like waves on a shore. 

Dave lent in for a kiss, brushing his lips against Kurt’s. They were soft too, and tasted good, and even if Dave knew it wasn’t true, they still felt somehow untouched. 

Feeling like a conqueror, he let his hands run down Kurt’s arms, and then wrapped his own arms around Kurt’s waist, pulling him in while he deepened the kiss, his tongue eagerly searching for Kurt’s while Kurt tilted his head and parted his lips, offering his mouth to Dave in such a sweet, surrendering way that Dave felt like he had won him over.

He unbuttoned Kurt’s tight pants and slipped a hand inside, palming his crotch with studied slowness, swallowing Kurt’s moans while he felt strikes of electricity run through his own body, under his skin, at the mere thought of having him naked and eager and restless, spread on his bed, under his body. 

By the moment Kurt had finally sat down on the bed, parting his legs to make room for Dave’s body, Dave has almost forgotten of Blaine’s presence in the room.

That, of course, until he felt his touch on his own chest.

“Anderson…?” he asked, unwillingly parting from Kurt’s lips, “What the hell are you doing?”

“I’m sorry,” Blaine chuckled, untying the lace keeping Dave’s shirt closed and opening it up, uncovering his broad chest and flat stomach, “I just couldn’t stay away from this.”

“Blaine…” Kurt whined, blushing wildly and covering his face with both his hands, his legs still firmly wrapped around Dave’s waist.

“I thought you said you just wanted to watch,” Dave growled, turning around just enough to throw Blaine an half-mocking gaze, that was ultimately ineffective, because Blaine was already grinning like he had just won the war already – and maybe he did.

“I said I would do it,” he answered, “Not that it was what I wanted to do. Or the only thing I would have done, for that matter.”

Dave scoffed out a resigned laughter, shaking his head. “You know, Anderson?” he said, “You’re an asshole.”

Luckily, that was just about all he wanted to say, because after that he really didn’t have the time, or the chance, to speak again. Blaine undressed him and pushed him down, forcing him to rub himself against Kurt’s shivering body. He didn’t really know if Kurt and Blaine had already had the chance to consummate, and if yes, he didn’t know if they had had the time to do it again since when they had reunited, but surely Kurt felt like he was dying to be touched, dying to feel a man against his body, inside it.

Feeling Blaine’s lips over his shoulder, and the graceful touch of his fingers all over his back, Dave lifted up his hips, giving Kurt time and space to get rid of his pants, and when he finally felt him naked under himself he prayed not to come too soon, with just that – the warm touch of another human being on his skin – because that would have been too embarrassing, too awkward and too shameful to stand.

He didn’t. Following the lead of both Blaine’s touch and Kurt’s needy whining, Dave found the path between Kurt’s thighs and inside the warmth of his body. He felt Kurt arch under himself, he felt him open around his cock and then close on it like a clutch, he felt the friction driving him insane as he pushed and pushed, getting lost in him, diving inside him like he was an ocean, with Blaine grabbing him and keeping him up for air every now and then, just enough to keep him focused and strong.

Blaine slipped a hand between their bodies, holding Kurt’s erection between his fingers and stroking him fast. Dave focused on the movements of his wrist, on the way it twisted and turned and moved up and down so quickly to mesmerize him, and set his own thrusts to that same pace, pushing inside Kurt every time Blaine’s hand travelled down Kurt’s length, and pulling out of him when his hand went back up, making Kurt’s body shake violently with every move they made.

Kurt’s desperate moans were addictive, but somehow not as much as knowing to be a part of the perfect mechanism that was bringing so much pleasure to all the interested parties, and when Dave came, grunting and gently biting at the perfect curve of Kurt’s shoulder, it was that thought that made him shiver, even after the orgasm had wore off.

He lifted himself up on his arms, looking down at Kurt. He was smiling blissfully and kind of dumbly, his chest and stomach, covered in his pleasure, moving up and down with every deep and heavy breath he took.

Dave turned his face to meet Blaine’s gaze. He found him smiling uneasily, trying to get off the bed unnoticed. “Where the hell are you going?” he growled, grabbing him by his wrist.

“Um, I don’t really know, actually,” Blaine answered, letting Dave drag him back close to him and Kurt both.

“Good. Then stay here. I’m not finished with you,” Dave said, grinning as he looked down at the bulge filling Blaine’s pants at his crotch.

Ten minutes after, the three of them were already lying on the bed, Kurt in between them, crouched against Blaine’s side and already starting to doze off, while Dave, turned on his side, watched them both with a puzzled yet somehow indulgent expression.

“You know,” he said, staring at the squared line of Blaine’s jaw as the man looked lazily at the ceiling, a serene smile curling his full lips, “This has been by far the weirdest experience of my entire life. And I battled giant carnivorous earthworms.”

Blaine chuckled, circling Kurt’s shoulders with an arm and not really minding if that arm ended up resting against Dave’s chest too, in the process. “Really?” he asked, “I have to say I found it quite enlightening, though.”

Dave looked down, blushing a little. He had felt the same, but he didn’t know if he could actually say that without sounding to demanding, or the Gods only knew what else.

“Captain,” Blaine said, his voice strangely but pleasantly soft, “I think we should try it again, sometime in the future.”

“If we manage to survive,” Dave added with a sigh.

“Yeah,” Blaine chuckled again. His voice kept sounding so weird and unsettling, like all those things you refuse to acknowledge you like, before you finally give up and admit it. “I think we will.”

For that night, and that night only, Dave chose to believe in him blindly, and with Blaine’s voice still echoing in his ears, he swiftly fell asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

After having resolved Karofsky's personal problems and brought back his sex life to the happy place it used to be in, the pirates, the conductors and Jesse – who sadly didn't fall in any of the two categories – were ready to take over the Capital. Not that the assault to the most powerful city of the Iron Lands could really depend on the satisfaction of three men's lust, but a no more longing Karofsky made a pretty decent and focused captain and Blaine, feeling the moment he could drive his beloved train again coming closer and closer, was excited enough to be really motivating for everyone else.

They got to the Capital at dawn, which added more surprise to their surprise attack. The Royal Army – both battletrains and infantry – was completely taken over by the whole fleet floating over the city and blasting it with cannons, Lauren's ship leading the attack while the Fury brought Blaine and Puckerman's men to Blaine's train.

The Royal Army took almost half an hour to reassemble. But when it did, that was when the real battle began. From five towers around the city, the Queen's army started the counter-attack, firing at the fleet. And the Capital's battletrains started roaming around the city, moving on the many tracks built just for them, giving the fleet another problem to deal with.

Dave watched his crew fight against the army. There was already so much smoke he could barely see, but the ships seemed to keep ground. “Will you all be okay?” Blaine asked, as he jumped off the Fury, directly on the Warbler's roof. His baby had been parked away during the past week – nobody being able to turn it on without Blaine's personal keys – but Blaine's crew was already swarming in it, making it ready.

“Yep. Don't worry about us,” Dave nodded, seriously. “You, instead. Could you move that thing of yours on the tracks where the other trains are?”

Blaine smiled, moved both by Dave's concern and his total ignorance about how battletrains worked. “Don't worry about us,” he mimicked his words. “There are old tracks that can still be used.”

Dave nodded. Besides, he could do nothing but trust him on this. He had never set foot on a train before and he had no idea how those crazy things worked, so he had to hope Blaine really was the hero that he said he was, and that he wasn't going to crash the train against another one. “Just stay alive,” he said, eventually. 

“Are you worrying for me, Captain?” Blaine smirked.

Karofsky blushed, realizing how his words sounded. “Of course not,” he growled, clearing his throat. “I'm worried that you can get yourself killed and ruin my perfect plan, leaving–“

“Kurt all to yourself?” Blaine mocked him.

“Yes. No!” Dave closed his eyes and breathed in for a moment. “No, I don't want to bear with him mourning your loss till the world ends, thank you very much. So, see that you come back.”

Blaine smirked again, his perfectly white teeth almost sparkling against his olive skin. “And you see that he is safe,” he said, giving him a salute with two fingers against his forehead. “I want to come back to both of you.”

Dave growled something about Blaine's nonsense and then ordered the ship to be moved. The fight was especially hard around the Queen's Palace, while the fleet was trying to break the army's tight defence. With the towers firing non-stop on them and the trains moving all around blasting their cannons, the fleet seemed too busy to make any real move and the situation was in stalemate. Blaine's arrival with the Warbler from an underground track caught the army by surprise again and gave part of the fleet the chance they were waiting to move and attack one of the towers from behind, while Blaine engaged fight with it on the front.

Using the same technique three times before the army could guess it, they managed to bring down three out of five towers within a few hours and basically destroy the infantry that had always been pretty much at disadvantage in the first place. As soon as a good breech was open in the Palace's defence, Puckerman leaned out from one of the Warbler's window and signalled Karofsky who nodded and turned the Fury around to meet with the train a few feet away.

“We have one chance to get in before the battalion get back together!” Blaine shouted as the train and ship run side by side. “We need to do it now.”

Dave nodded. “Got it. Bring the Warbler to the back of the Palace, I'm meeting you there.”

“Roger.”

Dave watched the Warbler speed up toward the tall building that was home of the Queen and Council of the city and stayed back for a while, covering its escape. Then, after bombing the closer enemy train until he exploded, bringing half of another train with it, he turned the ship around and followed Blaine.

*

“We don't have much time,” Blaine said before they entered the Palace from a breech in the walls some eager sailor of the fleet had opened for them.

“Luckily, we don't need much time,” Jesse said. “The vault is not far, only well protected. But if you know the codes, it's child's play.”

Dave nodded, still glaring at him. “This is your chance to prove yourself, St. James,” he said. “Go ahead and take those damn documents. We take care of the Queen.”

“I'll go with him,” Rachel said. She looked at Blaine for confirmation but her eyes told him she was not getting no for an answer, so the conductor nodded.

“Fine,” Dave growled. “Nobody leaves this place until we have those documents.”

“Either we get them or we die,” Jesse said, chuckling nervously. “They won't let us get out if we don't give them reasons to.”  
“Then find them! I didn't plan on die today, I've better things to do,” Blaine said.

“I know what you have to do, Anderson,” Jesse grinned, “and as much as I love to live, my first priority will be making sure you can go back to your shared bedroom activity.”

Blaine was totally unaffected by his remark. “It's better if you don't fuck with me, St. James,” he smirked. “I suspect Rachel will need a leave at the end of this.”

Jesse glared at him while Rachel facepalmed. “Can we go now? I thought we didn't have much time.”

“I agree with the lady,” Dave said. “Let's go and make it fast. I wanna dine on my ship. Good luck everyone!”

Rachel and Jesse took the hall to the left and didn't wait to see Blaine, Dave and Dave's crew disappear behind the corner. They run in silence for a while, until Rachel couldn't take it anymore and asked what she had been wanted to ask him for days. “This won't change what I feel, I'm just asking because your answer could jeopardize our life, which could actually change our future together,” she said. “Do we really have the codes?”

Jesse sighed. “Do you think I'm lying?”

“I think you don't always tell all the truth,” she said, carefully.

For a moment, Jesse seemed too busy looking around to even listen to her. He suddenly moved her against a wall, just seconds before a soldier of the Queen passed them by. He made her sign to shut up and then took out a knife and cut the man's throat. The spatter of blood on the white wall was bright red. “I'm telling the truth,” Jesse said as he cleaned the blade on the man's shirt. He didn't like to kill people, especially when it was a messy thing. “I know the codes, I saw those documents and I can help you bring her down. I would have never risked your life like this otherwise.”

Rachel smiled. “Fine. I just needed to hear you saying it.”

Jesse looked straight into her eyes for the longest moment and then nodded. “Come, it's this way.”

Blaine and Dave were running along corridors, leaving a trail of bodies behind themselves. They had no time nor will to keep people alive but unconscious. They were in a hurry and this called for killing, but none of them seemed bothered at all by the blood on their clothes. “Does he know you kill that easily?” Dave asked as he pierced a soldier.

“He knows I kill people if I have to,” Blaine said, doing pretty much the same thing a few feet away.

“That's not what I asked,” Dave said, turning around to shove his sabre in a soldier's neck and shot another with his pistol.

“How about this,” Blaine shot two men and hit a third in his shoulder. “I'm the good hero boyfriend who meets dad and you are the tall, dark and handsome pirate one who owns a ship and provides the kinky set for the steamy sex. And we officially stick to our own field.”

Dave threw a knife in some soldier's heart ready to take Blaine's life. “Surely you can't be the tall one, can you?” He said. “Give me the knife back, please.”

“Here.” Blaine took out the knife from the man's chest and passed it to him. “And Burt can't meet you either, or he's going to have another heart attack. So, you see, it's better if we keep separate roles. Also, it's gonna be funnier for everyone. If we're both good or bad, he will get bored. Let him think you kill people for fun and I don't.”

“I don't kill people for fun!” Dave protested, killing other two men with his sword like it was nothing.

“I know!” Blaine said, rolling his eyes exasperatedly. “Are you even listening to me, captain? I know you're not evil, just pretend you are and I will pretend I'm perfect and heroic. It's all part of the game!”

“Is this not like lying to him?” Dave asked, knocking the last man down and then stopping as they were in front of the throne's room door.

Blaine sighed. “Dave, seriously, Kurt is not stupid. Maybe he doesn't know I kill easily, but he surely knows I'm not perfect. And if he had thought you were a bad man, he would have never ever agreed to be with you. But he likes me because I'm not you and he likes you because you're not me. Can we keep it that way?”

Dave wondered about it for a moment and then just frowned and shook his head. “Fine. Whatever. I don't understand what you say half the time anyway,” he said, and then kicked the door open, entering the room with his gun aimed in front of him.

Queen Sue was watching out of the window the destruction made by the fleet, screaming random orders to the soldier below. When she heard the door open, she turned around and her eyes grew bigger in anger and hate. “How do you dare entering in here without permission?”

“He's got mine, Your Majesty,” Blaine said, coming out from behind Dave and aimed his gun at her.

“Excuse me?”

“We heard what you did to keep this war going and we didn't like it,” Dave said.

Queen Sue looked at him almost with disgust. “You don't know anything, pirate. Why don't you take your silly ships and go back in that hole you all call home before I have you killed?”

“We know more that we wanted to know,” Blaine said. “You have always been the only one gaining something from this war by selling weapons to both parties. You're the only one who wants this war, not the people nor us. And this must stop. I'm afraid your kingdom is over, Your Majesty. From this moment on, you're no longer Queen of the Iron Lands.”

She started to laugh, so loudly and amusedly that the whole room reverberated with her voice as she almost bended over, crying with laughter. “You and what army, mister Anderson? You're a pathetic excuse for a man and now you're even more pathetic as a soldier. A pale lure for the people, our hero in shining armour!” She said, still laughing. “Please, remove yourself from my sight. I can't laugh more than this, my muscles are not used to the movement.”

Blaine's serious face didn't flinch. “Our army, you can see it outside your window. We've already taken three of the towers and halved your men. And we intend to keep going until you are deposed. Tomorrow at this same hour, the war will be over and this kingdom will have another ruler.”

She stopped laughing but she didn't stop smiling because she still thought they had no chance against her. “You have no evidence of what you're saying, Anderson,” she said. “I've never sold weapons to anyone and I've always worked to make sure this war was going to end as soon as possible. I even hired an alchemist for that, whose invention, if I recall correctly, you had to protect and failed. To me, you're just a bitter man who couldn't do his job and allied with the enemy, and now you're here threatening your own Queen. What a pity! What a waste of time for everyone, actually. Shuester!”

From a door they hadn't even notice came a tall, blond man wearing the uniform of the Queen's personal guard followed by a couple of other guards. He looked around and noticed them, instantly drawing his sword. “Your Majesty?” He asked, before doing anything.

“Anderson, Nameless Pirate, I consider myself bored enough by your presence and inappropriate monkey shenanigans,” the Queen said. “So you will be both imprisoned. You can now be grateful to me because I won't kill you. Go on.”

They didn't move. “Mister Shuester, I take you're the commander of Her Majesty's personal guard,” Blaine said, coming forward. “I'm speaking on behalf of the Iron Lands Population and on the pirates, who are here represented by my friend, Captain Dave Karofsky.”

“So you have a name,” Sue commented.

“I know you, Mister Anderson and to me you're threatening the Queen,” Shuester said. “Please, clear your intentions and everything will be fine.”

Blaine moved even closer. Shuester aimed at him and Dave aimed at Shuester. For a moment the only sound that could be heard in the room was the clicking of guns. “I won't clear my intentions,” Blaine said, totally calm, “because they are exactly what you think. I have proof that Queen Sue has been constantly sustaining and exacerbating the war by selling weapons to both the Army and the Pirates and by always giving everyone new reasons to hate each other. She must be stopped and she must be stopped now.”

Shuester seemed upset. He frowned, his eyes darkening. “These are serious accusation you're making here, Commander Anderson,” he said, his tone both serious and paternalistic. “I suggest you to take everything back. Whatever you think you know, I'm sure it can be discussed civilly.”

“I'm not. Just shoot him, already!” Sue cried out, irritated.

“No!” Dave shouted, aiming at the Queen. “If he shoots, you die.”

Sue rolled her eyes. “Fine. Let's delay this ridiculous moment of despicable drama even longer,” she said, massaging her temple. “Anderson, you have nothing on me. So, can we all go home? Actually, can you go home since I'm already here? I'm even inclined to let you and your pirate people go with no more than a shooting or two as long as I can see you no more here or anywhere near this Palace.”

“As I said, I have proof of what I'm saying,” Blaine said, raising his hands. “They're coming in this very moment.”

That was the moment of truth. Blaine realized that if Jesse St. James was lying and he had took advantage of the moment to run away with Rachel, then he was dead. Nothing in the world would stop Queen Sue from killing him, and somehow in the past few moments it didn't occur to him at all. Why didn't they set a rendezvous with Jesse, after he took the documents, before making this scene? He turned a little toward Dave who shrugged, not knowing what to do either.

“Where are these evidences, Anderson?” Sue asked. “If they are real as you are a man of great value, we could wait for them forever.”

The air stood still for the longest time ever. At some point, even Dave started to think that they were alone and that he was going to shoot at this Shuester guy because he was going to shoot to Blaine and then he was going to die too. But then, the door was kicked open again and Jesse run inside, followed by Rachel.

“Am I still in time with these papers?” Jesse asked. “Someone has been killed already? No? Good. I'm so sorry. We had some stupid Math problems at the vault. Now, whom do I have to talk to?”

“St. James?” Sue asked. “Anderson, did you ally yourself with literally every scumbag of the nation?”

“I am not a... Nevermind,” Jesse shook his head. “We have no time for this, really. The whole Capital is burning down and it would be wise to put an end to this as soon as possible. So, dear sir, let me show you why my good friend Blaine Anderson is currently threatening the Queen. Her Majesty kept track of every sell she's ever made, though it's not clear to me why. And in her diary, Gods bless her, she's been writing all that has happened to her since the day she decided, and I'm quoting, to take over this pathetic nation and all those stupid people in it thirty years ago. Here, see for yourself.”

Jesse walked forward, gave the papers to Shuester and then politely took a step back, totally oblivious to the burning glare Sue was giving him.

Shuester ordered one of his man to keep Blaine under fire and started reading. This forced Dave to keep aiming at the Queen, which made his arms hurt. “Where did you find these?” Shuester asked.

“In the vault, sir.”

“Nobody knows the codes of the vault,” Shuester said, looking up just a moment.

“I'm not anybody, sir,” Jessie said. “You know me, you know what I'm capable of. I've actually picked a particular lock for you in the past, have I not, sir? Your lovely lady is well, I hope.”

Shuester blushed, violently. “Yes, she is,” he coughed. But then something really caught his eyes and his face fell as he was reading. “This is impossible. No! This is outrageous!”

Sue growled something that might be or might be not some sort of curse. “St. James, there's your name in there too.”

“I didn't see it,” Jesse smiled, lovely. Some of the pages attesting the worst parts of his past had conveniently fallen in the nearest fireplace, due to Rachel also convenient but lovely goofiness.

“Further investigations are in order, Your Majesty,” Shuester said. “I'm afraid these papers charge you with some serious crimes.”

“Each and everyone of you will pay for this,” Sue said as Shuester gently handcuffed her. “Especially you, Anderson. If you think nature has been mean to you, you haven't seen nothing at all. I'll be meaner with you than she's ever been. Your freakishly small stature and stupid hair will mean nothing after I finish with you!”

“Take her away!” Blaine ordered and she was dragged away, shouting and cursing. As the door closed behind her last scream, Blaine's whole body seemed to collapse and he slumped casually on the Queen's throne. Everybody was too exhausted to notice.

*

After reading her documents and her pieces of writing, the evidence against Queen Sue were too many, and she was charged with treachery and several other crimes. A trial took place but it was very brief, because the jury and the judge agreed pretty much on everything and even Sue's unhappy lawyer gave up on her as soon as she started insulting the court, making impossible for him to even ask for a remission. She wasn't put to death, though, because that would have given a very bad start to the new reign that was about to be created. She was condemned to life in prison.

During Sue's trial, war really came to an end, and the Lands held their breath, waiting to see what was coming next as representatives of each one of them converged to the Capital to discuss the future of the countries. A new Queen or a new King had to be elected, and brand new treaty had to be stipulate in order to regulate the usage of the iron in the Midlands.

The Capital population together with Dave's crew and the army were already starting to rebuild the city that had been almost completely destroyed by the combined attack of Blaine and the pirates. A battletrain had been sent to Lima to fetch Burt Hummel, who was now fanning himself with a piece of parchment in the heat of a summer came too soon.

“Rumours had it the Capital was levelled, but I didn't believe it,” he said, looking out of the window to the remains of the city. “But it's true. Everything is destroyed.”

They had given him a room in the old Queen's palace, where all of them were staying. “This is the only building still standing,” Blaine nodded. “It was an awful battle.”

“Indeed, son. Indeed,” he nodded, looking sadly at him. “Where are all the people staying?”

“We're setting a camp out of the city for the moment,” Blaine explained. “New houses will be ready soon, though. Everyone is helping.”

“That's a good thing.”

Kurt, standing a few feet away from his dad and fanning himself just the same, cleared his throat and decided it was time for the old man to stop looking at the city with dumb eyes and maybe help them. He had a promise to keep, after all. “Dad, there's someone I would like you to meet,” he said.

“Yes, yes,” Burt said nodding and looking around. “Who is it?”

Kurt smiled and pushed Dave forward. Dave was embarrassed beyond limits, because this meeting was really important and meant more to him than Burt would ever know. “Dad, this is Captain Dave Karofsky, he commands the Fury, the flagship of the pirate fleet. He saved mine and Blaine's life several times during our journey, and the victory wouldn't have been possible without him.”

“Oh, it's a pleasure to meet such a hero,” Burt said, shaking Dave's hand. “I had never met a pirate before.”

“I had never meet an alchemist, either,” Dave said, politely. “Nice to meet you.”

“Legends picture you people in a very different way.”

Dave smirked. “Do we have fangs and claws?”

“Sometimes, you do,” Burt nodded. “I have always been fascinated by your traditions, though. You seem peculiar people.”

Dave laughed because in Burt scientific curiosity there was still a trace of disgust and distrust that he had already seen in Kurt. But he knew now that it could be completely dissipated. “I will be more than happy to tell you whatever you want to know about us, except for treasure's whereabouts. Those are secret.”

“And marine charts,” Blaine said, smiling. “Those are secret too.”

“Too bad, I could use a little treasure,” Burt chuckled, finding the captain really amiable. “Is there something I can do for you that would make you change your mind?”

“Actually, there is something that I think you could do for me,” Dave said, seriously. He took off Santana's bracelet and showed it to the older man. “Five years ago, my second in command and my best friend, Santana, was shot with what I think is one of your inventions. She didn't die. Her conscience was locked inside a little device that I put in this bracelet, and she's been bodiless since.”

“A disembodier, yes. I invented those guns,” Burt said. 

“Kurt said the process can be reversed,” Dave said, hesitantly. He had been waiting for this moment for five long years, but now he was scared Hummel could say no. He had never really thought about the possibility of Santana being like this forever. So, while a part of him wanted an answer, the other one would be fully content living in ignorance for the rest of his life.

Burt studied the bracelet, turning it around in his hands. “Is she fully conscious even if she has never been in containing system?”

“You can bet I am,” Santana's voice said, glowing bright red and scaring the poor man who almost dropped the bracelet.

“Oh, I beg your pardon, miss Santana,” the alchemist said. “I didn't even know this was possible. Usually we put the consciousness devices in special containers called containing systems that help the consciousness stay alive. I've always observed that, without a containing system, the individual's consciousness fades almost every time. You must have a very strong spirit, madam.”

“Oh, she does,” everyone said, almost at the same time.

“Thank you very much,” Santana snorted.

“So, can you do something for her?” Dave asked, fighting his fears.

Burt looked at the bracelet once more. “Well, her strong spirit might have saved her from complete oblivion, and this is a miracle per se,” he said. “But in order to reverse the process, I'd need her body. There's no way I can use someone else's because the gun work by knotting together the consciousness and the body using the very own body's energy as a thread. If the body's energy doesn't match the one locked in the device, the process doesn't work.”

“But we have her body,” Dave said, smiling with hope. “We conserved it.”

“Oh!” Burt's mouth clearly formed an amazed letter O. “Oh, that changes everything. I have an embodier among the inventions I brought with me. As I always say, you never know what you may need. See, Kurt? What do I always say?”

“That you never know what you may need,” Kurt repeated, rolling his eyes. Blaine took his hands and interlaced their fingers.

“That's right!” Burt exclaimed, his mind already wandering to the many things he had to prepare and do to give back her body to Santana. “Now, bring me miss Santana's body. I will need a bed to lay her on, salts, some towels and boiled water. Lots of boiled water!”

“Is he bringing Santana back or is he helping her to give birth?” Dave murmured to the boys, frowning.

“Are you still here?” Burt said as he moved around the room like a madman, opening chests and taking out of them the strangest things. “Bed, salts, sheets, towel and boiled water. Come on, kids. Those things won't bring themselves here.” They all ran out of the room quickly as he kept shouting. “Oh! And her body! By the Gods, bring here her body!”

*

Santana's body was laid on Dave's bed. It was still and cold like a corpse, but her skin was perfect and darker as it was when she was okay. Her expression peaceful, she seemed asleep. It was strange to look at it, and nobody really could. Only Dave was already holding her hand, almost as if he didn't want to lose the exact moment when she would be herself again.

It turned out that of all the things Burt had asked, only the salts were for Santana. He used the towel to sponge his on forehead and it turned out he couldn't think well without gallons of tea, therefore the water. Kurt was taking care of it with a bored face as his father opened a little iron box and retrieved a gun. It looked like the one that had taken Santana's consciousness, but it was bigger and creepier looking. It had two barrels and the trigger was connected to weird mechanisms of wheels that fizzled and hissed.

He carefully took the little device out of the bracelet and inserted it in the provided slot on the side of the gun. Dave looked at him closely, his eyes promising a very painful end to the alchemist if something went wrong. Once the device was in place, Santana stopped talking and even glowing. Burt explained that it was perfectly normal since the consciousness was automatically transferred from the device to the gun.

“Are you sure she is really gonna be okay?” Brittany asked, sitting cross-legged on the floor next to Dave. He had called her to assist because she was Santana's girlfriend. And also because that part of him that was too scared to believe and feared that this was the end thought that Brittany deserved a last chance to say goodbye.

Dave lied. “Of course I am,” he said. “Don't worry.”

After a few moments, Burt took the gun in his hand and checked it one more time. “Before I start, are you one hundred percent sure this is the right body, unaltered and unwounded? Because if it's not and I proceed, both the body and consciousness will be corrupted and lost forever.”

“It's her body,” Dave said. “She wasn't wounded when it happened. We thought the body would rotten, but it didn't, so we preserved it in chamber. Brittany washed it every single day and took great care of her. She is unaltered, if that's what you meant.”

“Alright, alright!” Burt said, sounding cheerful even though his eyes were not. “Now, I want everybody to be silent and still as much as you can. It will only take one shot to me, but she will need a few minutes.”

He aimed the gun to her head and Dave shivered. He couldn't stand a gun threatening Santana, even though he knew that particular gun wasn't going to wound her in any way. The mechanism started to fizzle even more and then Burt pulled the trigger and there was a sparkle. It ran through the mechanism, exploding out of the barrel in the form of a little blue sphere that fled through the air at impossible speed toward Santana's body. When it reached her head, it slowed down. It leaned against it and then it was slowly absorbed by it.

Burt lowered the gun that was now silent and still as mus as the body was. “Is she inside her own body, now?” Brittany asked, perplexed.

“Yes, she is,” Burt nodded. Her consciousness turned on her vital energy that was appeased inside the body and it was now working its way through the body, revitalizing it. “It usually takes several minutes to...”

“Give me something to drink and make it strong,” Santana's voice was croaking but at least it came out of her throat.

“Tana?” Dave asked, holding her hand. He looked at her and couldn't believe she was actually alive and moving in front of his eyes.

“Yes, that's me,” she said. She tried to move her head but gave up and moved her eyes instead, smiling. “Ahoy, Cap'n.”

“Ahoy, Lopez,” he smiled back, happy as a child.

“How do you feel, miss Santana?” Burt asked, taking out medical instruments out of nowhere and measuring her vitals.

Santana thought about it. “I feel dizzy and a little numb, but I think I'm okay,” she answered. “I hear some sort of ringing in my ear.”

“That's perfectly normal,” Burt said, smiling. “It's the remnant of your energy that still needs to be relocated. It will pass in time, don't worry.”

“Good, 'cause I don't like this rhythm.” She reached out to Brittany who held her hand and sat on the bed. Santana looked at her and for the first time in five years Brittany could see the look in her eyes when she did so. It was exactly as she remembered. For the first time in five years she had lips to kiss and hands to hold and a body to cuddle. Santana read everything that there was to read on her face and just smiled for a moment before turning to the others. “Now, don't you have something to do somewhere? A city to build? A ruler to elect? Whatever you have to do, do it away from here, okay?”

Dave chuckled. “Fine, the room is yours,” he said, leaving a kiss on her forehead. “And the bed too, I'm gonna sleep somewhere else.”

Santana grabbed one of the several pillows around her and took advantage of her newly found body to throw it at Dave. “Oh, I know you will. Now, get out!”

“Miss, I don't think it's wise for you to...”

Dave and Blaine both took Burt under his arms and dragged him away. “She will be okay, mister Hummel. Let's leave her alone. In the meantime, the country needs you. And you can't really disappoint the country, right?” Blaine said.

“Of course not, but what can I do for the country?”

“Make the stone work,” Dave said. “It will be enough. Leave the rest to us.”

He closed the door on Santana and Brittany kissing and he smiled. The world was getting in the right direction, one small step at the time.

*

Blaine gave the last direction to the spokesman of the group of carpenters that was currently rebuilding that part of the palace that The Fury had taken down and sighed. Sue had been deposed a week prior and the Capital seemed to do just fine. There were some turmoil here and there in the rest of the country, but nothing that couldn't be kept under control. He had sent the army to bring clear news of what was happening in the Capital everywhere the information system wasn't working, but it was just a temporary measure to avoid people freaking out according to false rumours.

The main problem now was the election of a new ruler, which was why he was currently heading to the throne room where the others were waiting for him to talk about the matter. He had expected a few people to show up and offer to take Sue's place but apparently, nobody wanted to fill her shoes. The country had suffered too much and would expect a lot from the new ruler. Blaine couldn't really blame anyone for not even trying.

When he entered the room, everybody stopped talking and turned to him, looking weirdly at him. Burt cleared his throat and Kurt smiled at him, that strange, almost creepy smile he would give him when he was feverish and needed to take a sour medicine.

“What?” Blaine asked. “Do I have something on my face?”

“No, no,” Dave shook his head. “Your face is perfectly fine.”

“Then why are you staring at me?” Blaine asked.

“Because something happened and you need to know it,” Dave explained. He reached behind himself and fetched a piece of paper he was carrying around in his back pocket. “Some representatives of the people held a poll on who should be the new ruler of the Kingdom and eighty percent of the people answered that it should be you.”

“Me?” Blaine burst in laughter, taking the piece of paper from Dave's hand. “That's ridiculous.”

“But it makes sense,” Kurt said.

“No, it doesn't, Kurt,” Blaine insisted. “I'm just a conductor. I'm not even entitled to be a ruler.”

Santana came forward, proudly wearing her high heels boots again. “Actually, they know you. They know more about you than they've ever known about the Queen, and that makes you reliable. Plus, you are a war hero and the man who saved them all from the evil Queen. They expect you to take the last step and heal this country.”

Blaine shook his head. “Even if I wanted to, and I don't, I could never be the king. It would be unfair. I was born here in the Iron Lands, all the people who voted for me are from the Iron Lands. I don't want to upset the Floating Lands population or the Midlands' population by proclaiming myself King without knowing their opinion first.”

“You can't ask for everybody's opinion, you know that, right?” Santana asked, raised an eyebrow. “I'm all for equality and justice but there are more than seven millions people in this country, you can't ask each and every one of them if they want you to be King.”

“No, but a proper election would be the right thing to do,” Blaine said.

“And who are gonna be the candidates?” Kurt asked. “Nobody showed up or said anything. Nobody wants Sue's throne anyway. But the country can't be without a ruler, especially when the council members ran away during the trial.”

“I can't do this,” Blaine said again. “Dave! You know the people of the Floating Lands! You know the pirates! What would they say if I took the throne overnight?”

“Actually, most of them are already here and probably voted for you, already,” Dave shrugged. “Anyway, they won't say anything as long as you leave them alone and make a decent treaty for the Midlands.”

“The Midlands!” Blaine pointed a finger to him. “What about the Midlands? Shouldn't they have a say in this?”

“The man who brought us that piece of paper came from the Midlands. There's a group of them here in the Capital, they came to help,” Dave said, and then chuckled. “Apparently the whole world loves you, Anderson. Even though I don't know why.”

Kurt covered his mouth with a hand, smiling. “Oh shut up!”

“You can't be serious!” Blaine almost squeaked. “I can't be king.”

“It seems like you already are. It's you, for want of the people, or nobody at all,” Kurt said, sweetly.

Santana patted his shoulder. “The country needs you, Anderson. And you can't really disappoint the country, right?” She said.

Eventually, the coronation happened one week later, before Blaine could really understand what was going on and change his mind. It was an epic celebration with people coming from all the lands to see and cheer for the new King. For the first time in centuries, pirates were welcomed like everybody else and the Midlands population reasserted their support to Blaine with songs, dance and gift especially made for him. They were happy to contribute for once, after years of being completely excluded from politics while a war was fight on their land.

“Everybody seems happy,” Kurt said, while he, Blaine and Dave sat on the roof terrace of the palace where they had gone to escape the cheering crowd for a moment.

“Everybody seems overly excited too,” Blaine sighed as he tried to balance the crown on his head. “And this thing is so heavy.”

“You won't need to wear it every time,” Kurt said.

“No, just from morning to evening,” Dave mocked him. “It's not that much.”

Blaine glared at him. “Beware, Dave. I'm your king now, I can put you to death.”

Dave nodded, totally unimpressed. He pulled him by the collar of his jacket and kissed him deeply, forcing a satisfied moan from his lips. 

“So, what do we do now?” Kurt asked, curling against Dave's side as the man held him close too.

“Well,” Dave said, leaving a kiss on Kurt's lips too. “I think I'm gonna sail off tomorrow.”

“What?” Kurt was shocked. “You can't leave now!”

Dave smiled. “Did you get used to me?”

“Yes?” He said as if it was pretty obvious.

“I'm not a land man, Kurt. You know that. I need to be on my ship,” Dave said. “But Titan is not very far from here. I'll be back every know and then and we can be together.”

“All three of us,” Blaine specified.

“All three of us, of course,” Dave chuckled.

Kurt looked sadly at him for a while, but then he smiled. “You promise?”

Dave nodded and kissed him again, this time holding him in his arms.

Maybe it was what Blaine read in the moan Kurt let out, but he stood up and nodded over the door. “Let's not waste the time when he's here, then.”

They smiled at each other and hid in their room while in the streets below people were singing and dancing and laughing for the new king and the end of the war.


End file.
